REVIEW OF THE FOSSIL TIPHIIDAE, 
WITH DESCRIPTION OF A 
NEW SPECIES (HYMENOPTERA)* 
By A. P. Rasnitsyn 
Paleontological Institute, 
Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 
Profusoyuznaja, 113, 117868, 
Moscow USSR 
Through the courtesy of Professor Frank M. Carpenter (Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass.) and Dr. Paul E. S. Whalley (British 
Museum, Natural History, London, U.K.) I have been able to study 
the type specimens (good photographs of the specimen in one case) 
of all described extinct species ever attributed to the Tiphiidae. Five 
of them have been described as members of the subfamily Antho- 
boscinae by Cockerell: in 1906 (Lithotiphia scudderi, Geotiphia fox- 
iana), 1910 ( G . sternbergi, G. halictina) and 1927 ( G . pachysoma)\ 
while Hoplisidea kohliana was described originally as a member of 
the Sphecidae (Cockerell, 1906) and later transferred to the Antho- 
boscinae by Evans (1966). 
From my study of these specimens I have found that the latter 
species most probably belongs to the Sceliphronini (Sphecidae) and I 
will treat it elsewhere. The five other species are discussed below and 
one new species is described. All the species described by Cockerell 
are from the Lower Oligocene of Florissant, Colorado; the new one 
is from the ?Upper Oligocene of the Sikhote-Alin Mts., Maritime 
Province of the USSR. Only the holotypes are known for all these 
species and each specimen is a female, suggesting a female biased 
tiphiid population during the Oligocene. 
Only two other fossil specimens of Tiphiidae have been men- 
tioned in the literature; both were found in Baltic amber collected by 
A. Menge and both were identified by Brische (1886) as “Tiphia (?)”. 
Unfortunately, Menge ’s collection is apparently lost (Heie, 1967, 
P- 1 19). 
* Manuscript received by the editor August 3, 1985 
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