816 



ANNOTATED LISTS OF ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA (EXCEPT 



HETEROGYNA) AND CHRYSIDS RECENTLY COLLECTED 



IN MESOPOTAMIA AND NORTH-WEST PERSIA. 



BY 



f. d. mokice, m.a., f.z.s., 

 (Formerly President of the Entomological Society of London.) 

 {With four Tevt Figures.) 



The greater part of the specimens recorded in these Lists — about three-quarters 

 of the whole number — were taken by Captain P. A. Buxton (then of the Royal 

 Army Medical Corps) either in Mesopotamia in 1918, or in N. W. Persia (near 

 the South end of the Caspian Sea) in the following year. Together with these,, 

 and distinguished from them by being placed between square brackets [ . . 

 .,..], are included some captures made during the same period by two 

 other officers of the R. A. M. C, namely, Captain W. Edgar Evans and Lieut. 

 P. H. Harwood, the latter of whom collected in Mesopotamia only, and the 

 former (partly in company with Captain Buxton) both in Mesopotamia and Persia. 

 All records to which no statement to the contrary is added, may be assumed 

 to have reference to specimens taken by Captain Buxton ; and in these cases 

 I have generally given the day and month of capture, but have thought it un- 

 necessary to add the year, as this may always be inferred from the locality cited 

 — 1918 if the locality be Mesopotamian, and 1919 if it be Persian. (The letter 

 (M.) attached to the name of a place indicates that it is in Mesopotamia, and 

 similarly the letter (P.) that it is in North- West Persia.) 



Captain Buxton forwarded to me all the specimens taken by him, a few at 

 a time, as soon as possible after capture so that I could examine them while 

 still comparatively fresh, and they have been in my hands ever since. These, 

 therefore, I have been able to study at my leisure, and revise from time 

 to time my first provisional determinations of them. Those which I received 

 from my other correspondents were returned to the captors (named or 

 unnamed) as soon as I had taken note of them, but I have lately examined 

 afresh some of those taken by Captain Evans, and confirmed or corrected 

 my first impressions about them. I understand that I have now seen nearly 

 all his captures, and the rest are probably all dupUcates of species already 

 included in my Lists. I am much obliged to Captain Evans's father, Mr. 

 W. Evans, F.R.S.E., etc., for communicating with me on this subject, and 

 forwarding to me the specimens. Although the collection is small as compared 

 with Captain Buxton's, it contains several insects, not included in the 

 latter, which have especially interested me. Lieut. Harwood took only a 

 very few Aculeata, but I have to thank him also for enabling me to make 

 some welcome additions to the Lists. I should add that all my correspondents 

 were mainly interested in other orders, and consequently that Hymenopterists 

 should be grateful to them for sparing some of their valuable time towards 

 the advancement of knowledge in a subject other than their own. So far as I 

 know, only a few Russian Hymenopterists have collected in Transcaspia, 

 and still fewer in Mesopotamia. In both these countries the Hymenopterous 

 fauna appears to be almost exclusively Palserctic. That of N. W. Persia 

 seems, if one may judge such matters from the evidence of a single year's col- 

 lecting there, to be practically European, a large proportion of the species 

 occurring even in England, and most of them in Central Europe and the Balkan 

 Peninsula. That of Mesopotamia has a more Southern character. A good 

 many of its species occur, to my knowledge, in Egypt, and others are pretty 

 widely distributed round the Mediterranean. But, except Polistes hebrceus and 

 Xycolopa fenestrata, I know of none, which can be thought to have reached 



