30 HYMENOPTEEA. 



ii. Tarsal claws bidentate. (Sphex and Isodontia.) 



A. Petiole as long as or scarcely longer than the hind coxa? ; radial cellule extending 

 beyond the third cubital cellule ; clypeus in female crenate or with short teeth. 



(Sphex, Cresson.) 



2. Sphex erythroptera. (Tab. III. figg. l, ? ; l a s .) 



Xigra, nigro-pilosa ; alis rufo-flavis, apice fere fumatis. <$ § . 

 Long. 30-34 millim. 



Hab. Mexico, Orizaba (H. H. Smith), Temax in North Yucatan (Gaumer) ; British 

 Honduras, Cayo (Blancaneaux) ; Guatemala, Las Mercedes 3000 feet, Volcan de 

 Atitlan 2500 to 3500 feet, San Geronimo {Champion) ; Costa Rica, Cache (Sogers) ; 

 Panama, Volcan de Chiriqui 3000 feet (Champion). 



Antennae a little longer than the thorax ; the third joint two and a quarter times 

 longer than the second. Head subopaque, densely covered with longish black hair ; 

 apex of the clypeus projecting, slightly incurved in the centre ; face and clypeus with 

 scattered punctures ; eyes almost parallel along the face, slightly converging at the 

 top. Mandibles aciculated, the basal half with large punctures, the central part more 

 or less obscure rufous. Thorax sparsely clothed with hair and thickly covered with 

 dense, black, velvety pile ; top of the pronotum rather sharply raised and separated 

 from the mesonotum, the centre slightly depressed ; centre of the mesonotum furrowed ; 

 scutellum impunctate, a broad shallow depression down the middle ; postscutellum 

 with a more or less broad depression in the centre, making it almost bituberculate ; 

 metanotum opaque, coarsely alutaceous, a broad furrow in the centre, the furrow 

 broadest at the apex. Petiole shorter than the hind coxa?, shining, sparsely covered 

 with long black hairs. Abdomen scarcely so long as, and narrower than, the thorax ; 

 shining, impunctate at the base ; the apex sparsely punctured and bearing long hair. 

 Posterior tibiae and tarsi behind clothed with a fulvous pile ; rather strongly pilose. 

 First and second transverse cubital nervures very oblique, the first slightly curved, the 

 second quite straight ; the third at the base directed outwardly below the middle, then 

 directed sharply towards the base of the cellule (above, the top of the cellule is less 

 than the space bounded by the second transverse and second recurrent nervures) ; the 

 second recurrent nervure is received a little before the middle of the cellule ; the first 

 recurrent nervure is received in the apical third. 



Under the name of Sphex rujipennis^ Fabr., a species has been recorded from Persia, 

 India, North Africa, and South America. This species does not appear to be separable 

 from S. erythroptera by any very tangible character, and I should have been inclined to 

 consider it identical with the Indian one, which is certainly the S. rufipennis, Fabr. 

 (=S. diabolicus, Smith), if the genital armature of the males were not so markedly 



