A New Family of Wasps

The classification of the aculeate Hymenoptera is considerably complicatedby the existence of a number of small families of doubtfulrelationships, families such as the Plumariidae, Rhopalosomatidae,Sierolomorphidae, Sclerogibbidae, and Loboscelidiidae. To add stillanother family to this list is a dubious distinction, and to base such afamily on twelve specimens may be considered a dubious procedure.Nevertheless these twelve specirnens present such an unusual array ofstructural features that they can scarcely be ignored. Although someof these features are clearly specializations, others are so very generalized,for Aculeata, that there can be little question that this familyis a relict of a very ancient stock of wasps. These wasps have thehabitus of certain Scolioidea, and probably the family should beplaced in that superfamily. However, because of the 13-segmentedantennae in the female and the lack of closed cells in the hind wings,the family will fall in the Bethyloidea in most classifications. Thename of the type genus, Scolebythus, is meant to imply a sharing ofcertain characteristics of both these superfamilies of primitive Aculeata(scolbeing a prefix derived from Scolia, lebythus an anagram ofBethylus). Further discussion of the relationships of the family isdeferred until after the descriptive material. In the description of thefamily, I have numbered the more significant characters so that thesecan be referred to more readily later on