l6 £NtoMOLoGlCAL NEWS. [Jan., '05 



Some years ago Mr. W. Hague Harrington collected near 

 Ottawa, Canada, a strange Hymenopteron which somewhat 

 resembled an Evania with a red abdomen. This he sent to 

 L'Abbe Provancher who described it as generically and speci- 

 fically new to science under the name Ropronia pediculata. It 

 was very evidently an anomaly, and Provancher in an attempt 

 to account for it placed it in a group of Braconidae which he 

 called Flexitiventres. He considered it allied with the Ichneu- 

 mons from its general appearance, and on account of the ab- 

 sence of the second recurrent nervure he placed it as a Braconid. 

 But there is no known member of the Ichneumonoidea that 

 has the costa and radius separate, thus forming a distinct 

 costal cell, except Stephanidae, and the small and peculiar 

 family Evaniidse, which has been generally used as a dumping 

 ground for almost any anomalous Hymenopteron that would 

 not fit elsewhere. Provancher felt that Braconidae was not the 

 right group, for a little later he changed its position to the 

 Helorinae in the Proctotrypidae. This explained the presence 

 of a costal cell. In fact the whole wing venation bears a 

 superficial resemblance to Helorus. But when Dr. Ashmead 

 seven or eight years later came to write his monograph of the 

 Proctotrypidae, he gave voice to the belief that it was a Bra- 

 conid of the subfamily Pachylomatinae. This conclusion was 

 based on Provancher's description and figure of the wing. 

 Later Dr. Ashmead described from males two new species and 

 erected the family Heloridae in the Proctotrypoidea, containing 

 two subfamilies and three genera. The second subfamily, 

 Monomachinae, contained Ropro7iia, and also the highly anoma- 

 lous South American Monomachus. That is what has been 

 done with Ropronia to date, and that is where it is apt to stay 

 for a while. But we all have a right to our own opinion, and 

 I must confess to inability to agree with Dr. Ashmead. 



My attention was first called to the insect in 1903 while col- 

 lecting near Philadelphia. I was so fortunate as to take a 9 

 of garmani Ashm. The description and figure of this appeared 

 in the June, 1904, number of the " News," the first figure of 

 the genus ever published except Provancher's cut of the wing. 

 Last July while collecting near Ithaca, N. Y., Dr. Mac Gilli- 



