A REVISION OF THE NOETH AMERICAN SPECIES OF 



ICHNEUMON-FLIES OF THE GENUS 



ODONTOMERUS 



By R. A. CusHMAN 



Of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



This paper was originally planned as an attempt to straighten out 

 the existing confusion as to the identity of the species in that group 

 of Odontomerus Gravenhorst having entirely black body and red 

 legs. Since, however, my studies indicate that few of the North 

 American species are adequately described, I have expanded it to 

 include discussion of all the species together with a specific key. 



In the past ten years or a little more, three papers dealing with 

 North American species of Odontomerus have appeared. 



J. C. Bradley ^ discussed at some length the identity of the three 

 species melli'pes (Say), vicinus Cresson, and canadensis Provancher, 

 concluding that Tnellipes and vicinus are good species and that 

 canadensis is a synonym of vicinus. He also presented a key to all 

 the North American species and described a new species, alhotihialis, 

 allied to mellipes. 



S. A. Rohwer ^ overlooking Bradley's paper, revised the North 

 American species, recognizing ten species, synonymizing his own 

 errans with melli'pes, and considering Tnellipes, canadensis, and 

 vicinus as distinct species. The last mentioned, however, he recog- 

 nized onlj'^ in the male, confusing the female with what he called 

 canadensis. 



G. S. Walley ^ in a note on 'mellipes arrived at the conclusion that 

 canadensis is synonymous with mellipes. 



We thus have three workers, each with a fairly representative 

 series of specimens, arriving independently at three different con- 

 clusions in regard to this group of three species. 



In order, if possible, to straighten out the confusion, I have 

 borrowed from Cornell University and the Canadian National col- 

 lection the material on which Bradley and Walley based their con- 

 clusions and also the specimens in the collection of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History and the Pennsylvania State Depart- 



1 Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc, vol. 13, 1918, pp. 100-104. 



2 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 57, 1920, pp. 454-460. 

 » Can. Ent., vol. 59, 1927, p. 74. 



No. 2826.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 77, Art. 3. 



84212 — 30 1 



