1923] A Fossil Genus of Dinapsidce from Baltic Amber 
31 
A FOSSIL GENUS OF DINAPSID^ FROM BALTIC AMBER 
(HYMENOPTERA) 
Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, Harvard 
University, No. 22C. 
By Charles T. Brues. 
A small lot of amber insects which I have had for a number 
of years contains a very extraordinary hymenopterous insect. 
Several times I have attempted to locate it in one of the re- 
cognized families of the order, but I have never been satisfied 
with the result. It has also been shown to a number of entomolo- 
gists, none of whom were vv^illing to express any positive opinion 
concerning its relationships. Several weeks ago it was sent to 
the hymenopterists of the United States National Museum with 
a request that they examine it, and I soon received a note from 
Mr. R. A. Cushman calling my attention to a paper by Dr. James 
Waterston just received in the current October number of the 
Annals and Magazine of Natural History wherein he describes 
an almost exactly similar living insect from South Africa. For 
the African form Waherston has proposed the genus Dinapsis 
which he makes the type of a new family, Dinapsidse. He re- 
gards Dinapsis as more closely related to Megalyra than to any 
known Hymenoptera and from an examination of the fossil insect 
it seems that he is quite justified in expressing this opinion. 
Dinapsis is known only from the female, while the amber species 
is represented only by the male, but the two differ so clearly in 
wing venation and in the structure of the head and thorax 
that they cannot be regarded as congeneric. As the amber insect 
throws much light on the relationship of Dinapsis, it seems 
appropriate to describe it immediately after the appearance of 
Waterston’s paper. 
Fortunately, the fossil specis is beautifully preserved and I 
able to give a quite complete description. 
Prodinapsis gen. nov. 
cf. General form and size similar to Dinapsis Waterston. 
Head slightly broader than the thorax, obliquely narrowed 
