Physatta, Smith

Smith, F., 1857, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects collected at Sarawak, Borneo; Mount Ophir, Malacca; and at Singapore, by A. R. Wallace., Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 2, pp. 42-88 : 77-78

Gen. Physatta .

Head small; eyes of moderate size, placed a little before the middle; ocelli in a triangle on the vertex; mandibles stout and denticulate at the apex; antennae short, not so long as the head and thorax; the scape nearly as long as the flagellum, slightly thickened at the apex; flagellum subclavate, 6-jointed, the first joint shorter than the second; the third, fourth and fifth about the same length as the first, the apical joint the length of the two basal ones. Maxillary palpi 3-jointed, the basal and apical joints of about equal length, the intermediate joint twice the length of the apical joint, the latter obliquely truncate at the apex. Labial palpi 3-jointed, the two basal joints clavate, the apical one fusiform. Thorax subglobose; anterior wings with one marginal and two submarginal cells, the first submarginal cell about the length of the stigma, the second extending to the apex of the wing; with one sub-triangular discoidal cell; the tibia armed with a single spur at the apex. Abdomen globose, pedunculated, the peduncle formed of two nodes.

This genus in one of its most prominent characters agrees with the genus Heptacondylus , both having seven-jointed antennae: their relative proportions are, however, very different, as well as that of the joints of the flagellum; the wings have also a different neuration; this latter character will, I am inclined to believe, prove eventually that by which the generic divisions of the Hymenoptera must be regulated; even at present, with our meagre and imperfect knowledge of the species, it does, if strictly adhered to, bring together assemblages of species, allied alike in habit and structure; when taken in connexion with the structure of the mandibles and legs, indicative of habit, it becomes perhaps the most safe and available character hitherto adopted for their generic subdivision; the greatest help to science 1 think is its simplification.