
15. A Note on the L[viplopterous Wasps in the Collection 
of the Indian Museum. 
By Crepric Dover and H. Srintvasa Rao. 
(Published with the permission of the Director, Zoological Survey 
of India.) 
In the present paper descriptions of seven new forms of 
Vespidae, and new records of the majority of the species of 
diplopterous wasps described by singham in his first volume 
on the Hymenoptera in the “ Fauna of British India” series 
are given. Some of the species of which new locality records 
are given here have been identified by the late Col. C. T. Bing- 
ham and Mr. ©. A. Paiva. 
Valuable notes on the taxonomy of the Vespidae are 
given by Dr. J Bequaert in his memoir on the Vespidae of the 
Belgian Congo, published in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. H ist. Vol. 
XXXIX, 1918. In this paper reasons are given for reducing 
the genus Rygchium (= Rhynchium) to a sub-genus of Odynerus 
and for changing the well-known name I[caria to Ropalidia. 
The name Ischnogaster is also changed to Stenogaster, but with- 
out comment. After a study of the literature we find that 
this change should be maintained, for the text of Duperrey’s 
Voyage de la Coquille, Zoology, Vol. If, in which I schnogaster 
ibed 
lished long before this. In a foot-note to p. 271 of the text 
Guérin himself says that plates IX and X, on which J. fulgi- 
pennis is figured, were published in December, 1831. The 
generic name of fulgipennis was here given as Stenogaster and 
this therefore establishes its validity. In the text the author 
changed the name Stenogaster to Ischnogaster as he believed 
it to be pre-occupied in Coleoptera, but this was apparently a 
misapprehension, for according to Agassiz’ N omenclator Zoolo- 
gicus the Coleopterous genus Stenogaster was described in 1833, 
and Guérin’s genus was certainly prior to this. It will be 
seen that we have, therefore, no option but to adopt the 
change from the well-known Ischnogaster to Stenogaster, but we 
consider the case (like that of Jearia) yet another instance of 
