SPHEX. 35 



and fore legs, it would retreat backwards and push the dirt still further from the 

 mouth of the cell with its hind legs. In cases where the further progress of the work 

 was stopped by a stone too large for the wasp to remove or dig round, it would abandon 

 it and begin a new hole. Just as soon as it reached the required depth, the wasp flew 

 a few feet to the adjoining bank, and falling upon an Orchelimum vulgar e or 0. gracile 

 (two common grass-green katydid-like grasshoppers, about an inch long) stung and 

 paralyzed it instantly, bore it to its nest and was out of sight for a moment, and while 

 in the bottom of its hole must have deposited its egg in its victim. Reappearing it 

 began to draw the sand back into the hole, scratching it in quite briskly by means of its 

 fore spiny tarsi, while standing on its two hind pairs of legs. It thus threw in half an 

 inch of dirt upon the grasshopper and then flew off. In this way one Sphex will make 

 two or three such holes in an afternoon. The walk was hard and composed of coarse 

 sea-gravel, and the rapidity with which the wasp worked her way in with tooth and 

 nail was marvellous." 



B. Petiole more than twice the length of the hind coxae ; radial cellule not extending 

 beyond the third cubital cellule ; clypeus in female usually with a slight notch in 

 the middle and a small tooth on each side of it. (Isodontia, Patton.) 



^ 12. Sphex azteca. (Tab. III. figg. 9, 9 «, c? .) 



Sphex aztecus, Saussure, Reise d. Novara, Hymen, p. 38, t. 2. fig. 22 ( ? )\ 

 Hab. Mexico, Cordova 1 , Valladolid in Yucatan (Gaumer). 



v 13. Sphex costipennis. (Tab. in. fig. 10, s .) 



Sphex costipennis, Spinola, Mem. Accad. di Torino, xiii. p. 54 (1853) (?)'; Saussure, Reise d. 



Novara, Hymen, p. 39 2 . 

 Sphex petiolata, Smith, Cat. Hymen. Ins. iv. p. 259 {$)* ; Taschenberg, Zeitschr. ges. Nat. Sachs. 



Thiir. xxxiv. p. 417 4 . 



Hab. Guatemala, San Geronimo, El Eeposo 800 feet (Champion); Costa Rica, Cache 

 (Rogers) ; Panama, Bugaba 800 to 1500 feet (Champion).— Guiana, Surinam 2 ; Brazil, 

 Novo Friborgo 4 , Para 123 . 



n/ 14. Sphex apicalis. 



Sphex apicalis, Harris, Ins. of Massachusetts x ; Smith, Cat. Hymen. Ins. iv. p. 262 ( ^) 2 ; Saussure, 



Reise d. Novara, Hymen, p. 38 ( $ $ ) 3 . 

 Sphex apicalis, var. mexicana, Saussure, loc. cit.* 



Sphex philadelphica, Lepel. de St.-Pargeau, Hist. Nat. Ins. Hymen, iii. p. 340 5 . 

 Isodontia philadelphica, Patton, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. xx. p. 380 \ 



Hab. Noeth America, United States 1 2 3 5 6 .— Mexico, Orizaba 4 , Jalapa 4 , Cordova 4 . 



Saussure says that his var. mexicana does not differ in any essential particulars from 



pf2 



