16 z. bouCek 



parasites of quite different-looking species of the genera Calligaster and 

 Xenorhynchium (Eumenidae) . 



Zoogeography. The Leucospidae are confined to the warmer countries of 

 the world. Only a few species reach the temperate zones of America and Eurasia; 

 only one species, Leucospis affinis Say, reaches as far north as southern Canada, 

 L. dorsigera reaches up to about 50 N. in Central Europe, L. hopei to about 43 S. 

 in South America, a few species reach southernmost Africa and southern Australia. 

 The increase in the number of species with increasing warmth is best shown by 

 the fact that there are only 6 species known from the whole of the U.S.A., whilst 

 there are 16 species known from Mexico. The Leucospids are rather poorly repre- 

 sented on islands and even as large an island as Madagascar has (as far as is known) 

 only three species (1 Micrapion and 2 Leucospis). 



The fact that the New World Leucospidae have no species in common with the 

 eastern hemisphere may possibly be connected with their rare occurrence in the 

 temperate zones. Only few species could have had the chance of crossing from 

 Asia to North America when the two continents were connected. This might 

 explain, eventually, the close relationship of the small American texana-group, 

 rather isolated in the American fauna, with the related Old World groups. 



Classification within the family. Four genera are recognised, viz. 

 Polistomorpha Westwood, Leucospis Fabricius, Neleucospis gen. n. and Micrapion 

 Kriechbaumer. Polistomorpha includes 7 species confined to Central and South 

 America, Leucospis more than 100 species in all continents, Neleucospis one species 

 in West Africa, Micrapion 11 species in Africa and Madagascar. 



Polistomorpha seems to have retained the most primitive characters, except for 

 the reduction of the palpi. On the other hand, Neleucospis and Micrapion seem 

 to be apomorphic derivates of Leucospis, in various ways more specialized. In 

 particular, Neleucospis is very close to Leucospis, but is separated by a distinct gap 

 in several characters, mainly in the form of the head, scutellum, dorsellum, and of 

 the female gaster. All three genera (except Neleucospis, in which the males are not 

 yet known) show relatively high similarity in the males, including the aedeagus. 



Mar res Walker was excluded from the Leucospidae by Menon (1949) and is 

 discussed at the end of this paper (p. 229). 



In the past no serious effort was made to split Leucospis in smaller units, although 

 several generic names were proposed for aberrant-looking species (Exochlaenus, 

 Metallopsis) or based on characters which seemed outstanding when judged from 

 a small sample of species (as were the names proposed by Girault for the Australian 

 species). Their characters are discussed under the genus Leucospis. 



Key to the genera of Leucospidae 



1 Maxillary palpi either absent (Text-fig. 17) or reduced to a short brush-like rudiment 

 (Text-fig. 18), labial palpi very short; hind tibia perpendicularly truncate at apex, 

 with outer spur distinctly longer than the inner (Text-figs 6, 27) ; ovipositor confined 

 to ventral side of gaster, the latter spindle-shaped, its apex usually formed by 

 conical epipygium (Text-figs 16, 20, 30, 32; exception P. fasciata. Text-fig. 24); 

 C. and S. America POLISTOMORPHA Westwood (p. 18) 



