C. T. Brues.
The Embolemid Genus Pedinomma in North America.
Psyche 29(1):6-8, 1922.

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6 Psyche [~ebruar~
and the many other assiduous collectors who have diligently combed this section of New England.
Paratypes are in the collections of Mr. H. C. Fall, C. S. Anderson, Col. T. L. Casey, U. S. National museum, Boston Soc. Nat. History, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam- bridge, and the National Museum at Ottawa, Canada. THE EMBOLEMID GENUS PEDINOMMA IN NORTH
AMERICA.
Bussey Institution, Harvard University.
Several years ago Dr. Joseph Bequaert showed me a strange wingless Hymenopteron that had been collected by Mr. Wm. T. Davis on Staten Island, New York in 1910. Neither of us was able to recognize it at the time and he kindly allowed me to re- tain the specimen for closer study. During early May of the present year, when collecting insects in the Stony Brook Reser- vation near Boston, Mass., Professor W. M. Wheeler found a second specimen beneath a stone which I saw at once was exactly similar to the one obtained by Mr. Davis. During the remainder of the afternoon we searched carefully for further specimens in the neighborhood, but were unsuccessful. The insect proves to be a species of Pedinomma, a genus described nearly a century ago by Westwoodl and not known outside of Europe till 1912 when Kiefferz described as P. angus- tipenne a species obtained by Prof. F. Silvestri at Coipu6 in Chile. The North American specimens agree quite closely with Westwood's European species, Pedinomma rufescens as nearly as I can ascertain from descriptions which have been given by several writers', but it does not seem probable on account of its wingless condition that our American species can be identical with the palsearctic one.
1Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 6, p. 496 (1833). 2Bol. Lab. 2001. Gen. Portia, vol. 6, p. 174. 3Westwood (loc. tit.). Forster, Keiffer and Marshall.



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19221 Brues-The Genus Pedinomma in North America 7 Pedinommal nearcticum sp. nov.
cf Length 4-4.3 mm. Fulvo-ferruginous; flagellum, palpi, legs beyond femora and the adbominal segments beyond the middle of the second, lighter; first and basal half of second abdominal segments and teeth of mandibles darker, more or less fuscous. Head and thorax, except as noted, subopaque finely, granular. Head seen from above one-half longer than broad, its sides parallel behind the eyes, the centers of which are at the anterior third of the head; narrowed obliquely in front of the eyes so that the short antenna1 prominence is one-third as wide as the vertex.
In profile the head is an almost equilateral triangle gently convex above and below.
Eyes ovoid, placed
near the top of the head, broadest in front, separated by a little more than their length from the base of the antennae and as broad as the thickness of the scape.
Maxillary palpi short, 3-
jointed; first joint very short; second broad, enlarged at apex; third slender, pointed, nearly as long as the second; labial palpi 2-jointed, short. Mandibles broad, with four subequal teeth, clypeus clearly separated, one-third as long as the face, with large lateral fovese. Antennae 10-jointed; scape as long as the head, as long as the four following joints; second twice as long as thick and two-thirds as long as the third which is two and one-half times as long as broad; following gradually more attenuate, but not perceptibly shorter; last (the tenth) one- fourth longer than the ' ninth. Ocelli entirely absent. Thorax three times as long as broad above where it is barely as wide as the head; widened below, especially in front so that the pleurae are visible from above; dorsal surface almost flat above; pronotum as long as tzhe propodeum, but the mesonoturn and scutellum together about half as long as either of the others; prothorax with a distinct constriction near the anterior edge extending from the lateral edge entirely across the middle; anterior to this it is indistinctly transversely aciculate. Mesono- turn very small, in front two-thirds as wide as the pronotum, and narrowed behind, with the lateral edge raised and preceded by a 1Westwood applied the name Myrrnecomorphus to'his species, but Forster considered this as a homonym of Dufour's dipterous genus Myrmemorpha since the latter word is incorrectly formed. Later authors have used Forster's name Pedinomma and I have here followed them



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8 Psyche [~ebruai
groove. Tegulae large and distinct; wings reduced to small oval bulbs, but little longer than the tegulse, lying in depressions at the side of the mesonotum and scutellum. The latter small, broader than long with a pair of deep, nearly conflunt fovese at the base. Propodeum a little longer than wide, sides parallel, apex of dorsal face truncate, apical angles each with a minute tooth; posterior face nearly perpendicular. ~eso and meta- pleurae and sides of propodeum obliquely rugoso-striate; pro- podeal spiracle elongate, almost linear. Abdomen not depressed, nearly circular in cross-section, strongly bent downwards at apex, the upper surface smooth, without any constrictions, the tergites extending well down on the sides; first one almost as long as second; third, fourth and fifth each about two-thirds as long, subequal; apical segments short. Anterior femora and tibiae greatly thickened; middle legs slightly so; hind legs moderately slender. Tarsi, especially the four posterior ones long and slender; inner spur of hind tibia oval, pad-shaped, outer one nar- rowly spatulate, but not pointed at tip and less than one-third as long as the metatarsus.
Claws slender, simple.
Type from Stony-brook Reservation, Boston, Mass., May 8, 1921 (W. M. Wheeler) ; paratype from Wyandauch, Long Island, N. Y., May 1, 1910 (W. T. Davis)
I have stated that the specimens are males as the antennae are 10-jointed although I cannot be sure, and Kieffer was also in doubt as to the sex of the Chilian species. Both sexes of the
European form are practically apterous, although the Chilian, P. angustipenne has very short, strap-shaped wings. As already noted, P. nearcticum is very close to P. rufescens, but the comparative lengths of the antenna1 joints are different. Several European varieties have been based on slighter variations of the same sort, however, and the American form may possibly prove to represent only a variety or subspecies. Pedinomma is not known from Asia, but it is a very rare insect in Europe and may quite possibly range far to the east of its present known habitat.




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