1973 ] 
Evans — Cretaceous A culeate W asps 
167 
eralized sphecoid wasp. One specimen is quite clearly a sphecoid, a 
pemphredonine probably related to Lisponema, described from Cre- 
taceous Canadian amber (Evans, 1969). The bulk of the material 
consists of Bethyloidea (26 of 29 specimens), including the first 
records of Bethylidae from prior to the Oligocene. 
As might be expected, all specimens are small (under 5 mm) and 
all represent forms likely to be associated with trees. Present-day 
Bethylidae attack larvae of Microlepidoptera and small Coleoptera, 
while Cleptidae (the most abundant Aculeata in Taimyrian amber) 
are parasites of sawfly larvae or the eggs of Phasmida. Many living 
Pemphredoninae are associated with woody plants, and since the 
Cretaceous forms lack spinose legs it seems a safe assumption that 
they were xylicolous. The absence of larger wasps and of fossorial 
forms is, I believe, merely an artifact, as such insects are unlikely to 
become fossilized in small pieces of resin. But the diversity of non- 
fossorial forms leads one to believe that the total aculeate fauna may 
have been surprisingly rich. 
? FAMILY SPHECIDAE 
Taimyrisphex, new genus 
Known from a single male approximately 4 mm in length, fully 
alate [legs missing except coxae, front and middle trochanters, and 
front femur] (Figs. 1, 2). Head about as wide as thorax; lower 
part of front roundly prominent, overhanging bases of antennae, 
the latter 13-segmented, very short, approximately capable of reach- 
ing apices of front coxae, scape barely longer than thick, flagellar 
segments about as long as thick (except ultimate segment 1.5 X as 
long as thick) ; eyes large, reaching from close to top of vertex to 
base of mandibles, inner margins weakly emarginate; ocelli large, 
lateral ocelli removed from eye margins by less than their own 
diameters; occipital carina present at least laterally; labial palpi 
short, 4-segmented ; maxillary palpi slightly longer [probably 6- 
segmented; details of mandibles and clypeus not clearly visible]. 
Pronotum sloping smoothly to collar, with small, rounded posterior 
lobes which nearly reach the tegulae; dorsal and lateral faces of 
pronotum separated by a subcarinate ridge; posterior margin of 
pronotum forming a smooth arc between posterior lobes; meso- 
scutum long, weakly convex, the notauli deeply and broadly im- 
pressed on the posterior fourth, extending as weak lines almost 
to anterior margin of scutum ; parapsidal furrows present, linear, 
nearly complete; scutellum convex, with a transverse basal impres- 
