RECLASSIFICATION OF MICROGASTERINI 205 



But Protomicroplitis has, in the main, the thorax heavily punctate or otherwise 

 sculptured whereas Larissimus is characterized by its highly polished appearance. 

 From Parenion it differs in details of wing venation. From both these genera 

 and indeed from all other Microgasterini it differs in having an undefined vannal 

 lobe. 



Larissimus cassander sp. n. 



o*?. Thorax and gaster red ; the gaster darkened apically in the female from Passe des 

 Indies. Head mostly black above with a reddish patch extending forwards from the posterior 

 ocellus to the inner orbit of the eye ; lower part of the head and most of the lower part of the face 

 red. Front and middle legs reddish-yellow ; hind legs red with the hind tibia slightly darker 

 and the hind tarsus strongly blackened. Wings smoky with yellowish tint ; still darker within 

 the 1st discoidal cell and the radial cell ; to the naked eye, the fore wing appears to be crossed by 

 an orange-yellow band that embraces the stigma. 



$. Head above, including the eyes, rather conspicuously hairy. Antenna broken but the 

 existing 10 flagellar segments clothed with extremely short pubescence. Inner spur of the hind 

 tibia almost two thirds as long as the hind basitarsus. Tergite 1 swollen and convex in apical 

 half ; deeply channelled in anterior half. Tergite 2 with large, triangular median area whose 

 base is slightly longer than its sides (Text-fig. 248). Ovipositor thick, sickle-shaped (Text-fig. 



252)- 

 o*. Like the female. 



Brazil : Nova Teutonia, 7.11.1938, 1 <j>, the TYPE, 26.fi. 1937, 1 (J, 5.xii.i937, 1 <J, 

 Passe des Indies, i.1937, 1 $, (All Fritz Plaumann). 

 Type in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



This is the most brilliantly coloured and largest Microgasterine known to me. At 

 first sight it could easily be mistaken for a member of the cyclostome subfamily 

 Braconinae. 



PRASMODON gen. n. 



Type-species : Prasmodon eminens sp.n. 



Scape of antenna short. Ocelli in a high, almost equilateral triangle. Side of pronotum 

 without trace of a dorsal furrow. Lateral, polished zone of scutellum reduced to a linear band 

 that is not at all convex in the forwards direction. Propodeum with a very strong, medial, 

 longitudinal keel and a transverse keel, that together divide the propodeum into four large areas. 

 Areolet of the fore wing fairly large, having the appearance of being closed externally by the 

 the 2nd transverse cubitus alone ; but, judging from the position of the point of emission 

 of the spurious part of the radius, the areolet is, in fact, closed by the short 1st abscissa of 

 the radius, plus the 2nd transverse cubitus ; the 2nd transverse cubitus is reduced to a hyaline 

 point (Text-fig. 242) ; metacarp much longer than its distance from the apex of the radial cell ; 

 radius markedly downcurved at apex ; vannal lobe of hind wing narrow, much attenuated 

 apically, the narrowed apical part darkened (sclerotised ?) and covered thickly with adpressed 

 setae ; the spurious vein closing the 2nd cubitellan cell of the hind wing hardly indicated. 

 Inner spur of the hind tibia reaching to about middle of hind basitarsus ; hind coxa moderately 

 large, smooth. 



This genus is highly aberrant though I have no doubts that it is correctly placed 

 in the Microgasterini. It probably represents a line of development that must have 



