444 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. IX, No. 4, 
Paranysson texanus Cress. 
The following characters pertaining to this species are worthy 
of note. The second submarginal cell is distinctly five-sided, 
the submarginal vein being much drawn down to meet the 
recurrents, the first recurrent being inserted near the base of 
the cell and the second scarcely beyond the middle; the third 
submarginal cell has a short side on the marginal. The eleventh 
and twelfth joints of the male antennae are slightly excavated 
beneath at base, but the apical joint is not at all excavated. 
The retracted eighth ventral segment of the male is of a peculiar 
form and has a deep median slit. (In N. plagiatus and N. aequa- 
lis this segment is sinuate-emarginate and the corners are 
rounded and not of peculiar form.) The tubercles, posterior 
angles of mesonotum and the sides of the abdominal segments 
are sometimes ferruginous. I have specimens from Florida 
(W. H. Ashmead) and Missouri. Specimens of P. fuscipes Cress, 
from Poway, Calif., (F. E. Blaisdell) indicate that that is but a 
variety of texanus, as the legs vary from entirely black to mostly 
red. The specimens from the Atlantic and Pacific slopes agree 
in all their structural characters, including the form of the 
seventh and eighth ventral segments and the claspers of the male, 
and differ only in the more extensive yellow markings on the 
abdomen of the western variety, a character in agreement with 
the established rule of geographical colorational variation. Some 
of the Californian males have a yellow mark on the sides of the 
seventh abdominal segment. (N. plagiatus from Lake Co., 
Calif., (O. T. Baron), likewise has more extended yellow marking 
than the typical variety from Connecticut.) In Mr. Cresson’s 
synopsis of the species of Paranysson and Nysson the systematic 
value of the coloration of the legs has been greatly exaggerated. 
No valid specific characters have yet been pointed out for 
separating P. mexicanus Cress from texanus. 
Paranysson armatus Cress. 
I have a male of what appears to be this species from East 
Tennessee (E. M. Aaron). It differs from Mr. Cresson’s descrip¬ 
tion only in having no yellowish spots on the third and fourth seg¬ 
ments of the abdomen and in having a small median tubercle near 
the edge of the clypeus and an angle or short median tooth 
between the two larger teeth on the seventh abdominal segment, 
these latter characters not being mentioned in the description of 
armatus. It agrees with texanus in venation, in the form of the 
antennae, in having a small tooth on mesopleura and in the pres¬ 
ence of a longitudinal ridge on the face and of a longitudinal 
tubercle on the inner side of each posterior ocellus, and the 7th 
and 8th ventral segments also agree; its sculpture also and colora¬ 
tion afford no clear characters for distinguishing it from texanus, 
