Rediscovery of Scolebythus Madecassus, With a Description of the Male and of the Female Sting Apparatus (Hymenoptera: Scolebythidae)

Scolebythus madecassus was described by Evans (1963) from a single female taken by Wulsin at Mandritsara, Madagascar. It is the monotype of the genus Scolebythus, which in turn is the type genus of family Scolebythidae, a small and rare taxon related to Bethylidae, containing two other monotypic genera in additioxl to Scolebythus: Clystopsenella (widespread in Brasil) and Ycaploca (South Africa and Australia). Females and males were known for all of these genera except Scolebythus, in which only the female holotype has been collected until now (Evans 1963, Nagy 1975, Day 1977). During February 1977, one of us (WLB) found six living specimens of Scolebythus madecassus in a single small piece of rotten wood in disturbed rain forest along the road south from Andasibb (formerly Pbrinet), Madagascar, about km from the railroad station and hotel. One of the females among these has been compared with the holotype (MCZ) by WLB, and is considered to be conspecific. The collection was made at about 14.00 hr, just at the beginning of a heavy thundershower, on a heavily shaded part of the forest floor, where WLB was searching for ants. A small, very rotten stick, about 15 cm long by 3 cm thick, was picked up out of the leaf litter and twisted by hand, so that one end of the stick was split open. A small black wasp, appearing in life like a large, long-necked bethylid, was found in the large, irregular chamber thus breached;