P. CAMERON. HYMENOPTERA. 185 



HYMENOPTERA 



(Except Anthophila and Formicidae) 



BY 



P. CAMERON. 



The Aculeate Hymenoptera, exclusive of the Bées and Ants (which are dealt with 

 elsewhere), taken by Dr. H. A. LORENTZ during the Dutch Expédition to New Guinea in 

 1907, number 39, of which 24 species and 1 variety are apparently undescribed. 



The question as to whether New Guinea and the Papuan Islands, belong, zoologically, 

 to the Australian, or to the very différent Oriental Zoological Région, cannot, with my 

 présent knowledge of the described species, be finally dealt with from the point of view of 

 the Hymenoptera, for the reason that Mr. F. SMITH, who described the Malayan species 

 taken by Dr. A. RUSSEL WALLACE, has done so in a very uncritical and unsatisfactory 

 manner, not only as regards the Aculeates, but also as regards the Terebrantia and more 

 especially the latter. It seems, for example, an almost hopeless task to identify his species 

 of Pimpla and some of the other gênera of the parasitic Hymenoptera, from his descriptions 

 alone. It is clear that his Pimpla is a mixture of several distinct gênera — Xanthopimpla 

 especially, Echthromorpha, Theronia. Pimpla, as now restricted, — I hâve not seen from Malaya. 



Looking at the Papuan Hymenopterous Fauna from my own knowledge of the species, 

 it seems to me that three distinct éléments are to be recognized. We hâve, in the first place, 

 an oriental séries chiefly represented by species commonly distributed over India and Hindu- 

 Alalaya, e. g. Eumenes arcuatus, E. pomiformis, Polistes marginalis, Macromeris violacea, 

 Sphex umbrosus, S. aurulentus and Rhynchium haemorrhoidale ; second, of an Australian élément, 

 represented by gênera characteristic of the Australian Fauna, not found in the Oriental Région, 

 e. g. Thynnus, Alenrus, Abispa, Alastor ; and, third, of a Papuan group, i. e. of species only 

 known, so far as we know, from the Papuan Islands. This section consists of species, as has 

 just been mentioned, found only in Papua, or of species known elsewhere, but there represented 

 by more or less well-marked varieties. — Of the former section we hâve the very distinct 

 Nortonia viridis and its allies, of the latter, Vespa cincta picea, and the fine large varieties of 

 Rhynchium haemorrhoidale — splendidum, médium, kiïnckeli. 



As regards spécimens, if not of species, Polistes appears to be the commonest Vespid 

 genus; as regards species Icaria. The nests of the latter are much smaller than those of 



