Jan., '05] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. I7 



vray took a 9 of a species new to science which he has kindly 

 permitted me to describe below. 



There remains for Ropronia only a choice of the Ichneumo- 

 noidea or Proctotrypoidea or of a new superfamily between 

 them. In the Aculeates and Proctotrypoidea the arrangement 

 of the abdominal segments is such as to make the sting-like 

 ovipositor arise from the apex of the abdomen ; in the Ichneu- 

 monoidea it arises apparently from the ventral surface anterior 

 to the apex, caused b}- a modification of the ventral segments. 

 A study of the two 5 's of Ropronia proves to my satisfaction, 

 although not beyond the limits of doubt, that the arrange- 

 ment in Ropronia is of the Ichneumonoid t3-pe, but other char- 

 acters, such as the chitiuization of the ventral segments, the 

 nature and insertion of the petiole, the head and the wing 

 venation are not like those of Ichneumonids, excepting per- 

 haps Evaniidae. It is evident to me that we have an old t)'pe 

 perhaps greatly modified, as in the hypothetical case of E in 

 the diagram. Its true relations will continue a matter of 

 doubt until some one works out from exhaustive and system- 

 atic study the phylogeny of the parasitic Hymenoptera. Until 

 this be done, I shall personally consider it as representing a 

 distinct family, — Roproniidae between Ichneumonidse and 

 Evaniidae. Of one thing I am certain, that it has no close 

 affinities with Monomachus in which the type of abdomen is 

 Proctotrypoid, and the shape utterly different ; in fact there 

 are no characters in common except a superficial similarity in 

 wing venation, which may mean, so far as we know, perhaps 

 much, perhaps nothing at all. 



Ropronia ashmeadii n. sp. 



9 Dull black, abdomen except petiole, front femora except basal third, 

 front tibia and base of tarsi bright red. 



Head seen from above transverse quadrate, the eyes prominent, the 

 distance behind them considerable ; occiput rather sharply angled ; man- 

 dibles black, bidentate, clypeus evenly rounded ; face in front slightly 

 swollen mesally below the antennae, very irregularly roughened by sharp 

 irregular wrinkles, interspersed with shallow punctures of various sizes, 

 in a row around the edge of the rather small eyes and on the temples 

 and cheeks sub-regularly quadro-reticulate ; above the antennae the 

 wrinkles are less irregular, drawn out into long reticulations, again shallow 



