18 
Psyche 
[February 
NOTE ON THE HYMENOPTEROUS FAMILY RHOPALO- 
SOMATIDiE. 1 
By Charles T. Brues. 
During the course of a study of African Braconidac, I find in 
a collection sent by E. C. Chubb, Director of the Durban Mu- 
seum, a specimen of the Rhopalosomatid genus Paniscomima 
Enderlein. 
A comparison of this species which proves to be the type of 
the genus, P. erlangiana, with the American Rhopalosoma 
enables me to indicate the relation between these two genera 
and to Morley’s Rhopalosoma abnorme from India which very 
evidently represents another genus. It thus appears that this 
aberrant family includes three genera, each characteristic of a 
different zoological region, one from America, another from 
Africa and a third from India. 
Paniscomima erlangeriana Enderlein 
Zool. Anz., vol. 27, p. 465 (1904) 
There is a single male from Widenham, Natal, December 
14, 1914 (A. L. Bevis) 
Enderlein based his genus Paniscomima on a single female 
from Somaliland and all of the characters which he gives to 
separate it from Rhopalosoma are not valid since he was obliged 
to rely on Westwood’s description and figures. I find on a 
careful comparison of the present African specimen with speci- 
mens of Rhopalosoma pceyi Cress, collected in Haiti by Dr. Wm. 
M. Mann that several of Enderlein’s differential characters ( loc . 
cit.) do not really exist since the labial palpi, parapsidal furrows, 
tibial spurs and obsolete second recurrent nervure are essentially 
similar in the two. However as set forth in the following key, 
there are several differences which seem to be of sufficient weight 
to retain Paniscomima. 
A comparison of Morley’s description of the Indian Rhopalo- 
soma abnorme (Trans. London Entom. Soc. 1910, p. 386) shows; 
that it is undoubtedly entitled to generic rank. The strongly 
Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Ins- 
titution Harvard University, No. 256. 
