SYMENOPTEROUS family STEPHANID/E. 



761 



from Colombia, Peru, and Chili. It seems probable that this is 

 not the true distribution, or rather, that they are spread through- 

 out the whole of the warm parts of the Southern Continent, their 

 apparent absence being due to the absence of collectors. 



The males are poorly represented, only 6 out of 17 species here 

 recoi-ded being known in that sex. Szejaligeti briefly mentions 

 *S'. (i/.) loustenii, 6 , stating merely " c? , tarsi four-jointed, meta- 

 tarsus brown " (p. 534). The statement that the hind tarsi are 

 four-jointed is repeated with respect to several other species, and 

 seems inexplicable, seeing that he correctly gives others as five- 

 jointed. 



As a general rule, tliey are black insects with red head and 

 nearly hyaline, or evenly infuscate wings. The known exceptions 

 are: H. marginalis Schlett. with black head, and H. macidipennis 

 and suhmacidatus Westw. \\\t\\ centrally darker wings ; the types 

 of the two last are in the British Museum. 



Roman works out this subgenus in (2), largely based on material 

 collected by himself in the Amazon Region in 1914-15. He 

 does not consider the difference in neuration of the fore wing to 

 be of sufficient value to justify the erection of a new genus — I 

 prefer to call it a subgenus — and proposes to call it merely a 

 group of the genus Stej)hanus. Three main reasons for this are 

 advanced : — 1st. That they differ from S'iephanus, s. str., only in a 

 single wins; character, a,nd that there is in the Stockholm 

 Museum a transition form in which the external submedian 

 cell is only slightly open. It is not unusual to find in Stephamts, 

 s. str., that the apical transverse nervure bounding this cell does 

 not actually join the median nervure, thus leaving the outer lower 

 angle of the cell slightly open, but the median nervure, never- 

 theless, extends to the full length of the cell. 2nd. As far as is 

 known, all the S. American Stephanus, s. str., are 25 mm. or 

 more in length, Hemistephanus all less than 25 mm. I am 

 unable to decide as to the value of this fact. 3rd. Megischus 

 texaims Cress., originally described from a specimen with 

 mutilated wings, is said to be represented in the Stockholm 

 Museum by a topotype and to be a Jle^nistephanus, but differing 

 in colour and sculpture from the S. American species, showing 

 strong affinities to the N. American species of Stephanus, s. str. 

 I should be not inclined to withdraw the subgenus on this evidence 

 alone. There may be a mistake in identification, or the northern 

 representatives of the group may have their special characters. 

 For the present I place that species in Stephanus, s. str. 



Practically nothing is known of the life-history of these insects. 

 They are always found on or ai-ound dead or dying wood, and 

 are certainly forest dwellers, parasitic on wood-boring larvtie. 

 Roman (Z. c.) suggests that their hosts are to be found among the 

 Brenthidpe, their larvae being elongate and apparently suitable for 

 those of slender elongate insects like the Stephanidse ; also they 

 are both found in all warm countries. Buprestidae may also be 

 considered, but Brenthidae he thinks most probable. 



