38 HTMENOPTEEA. 



1. Rhinopsis maculicornis. (Tab. III. fig. 14, 2 .) 



Niger, albo-villosus, scapo medioque antennarum, pedibus apiceque abdominis, rufis ; alis hyalinis, fusco-macu- 



latis. $ . 

 Long. 8 millim. 



Hah. Mexico, Jalapa (F. D. G.) ; Panama, Bugaba (Champion). 



Antennae as long as the head and thorax united, thickened towards the apex ; the 

 third joint longer than the fourth and fifth united. Head rugosely punctured, covered 

 with a short white pubescence, and with a few hairs ; clypeus finely punctured, and 

 covered with long white hair, its apex projecting into a snout and reddish, as are also 

 the tips of the mandibles ; behind, the head is largely developed, rounded, and 

 narrowed ; the front and vertex are convex, rounded, and without any furrows ; the 

 ocelli are placed opposite the top of the eyes. Prothorax thickly pilose, as long as the 

 mesothorax, twice longer than broad, narrowed anteriorly ; above, towards the apex, 

 furrowed, the sides in front rising on either side of the furrow into broad tubercles. 

 Mesonotum hardly so pilose as the prothorax ; marked with large, scattered punctures. 

 Scutellum marked with a few scattered punctures. Metathorax longer than the meso- 

 thorax; bearing a central and four lateral keels (the central straight, that next to 

 it curved, converging towards the apex, the second also slightly curved, the others 

 straight) ; the space between the keels transversely striolated ; in the centre the meta- 

 notum projects into a blunt tooth truncated at the apex, and laterally bears a sharp 

 moderately long tooth. The petiole is a little longer than the hind coxae. The apical 

 abdominal segments are closely covered with a white pubescence. Wings as long as 

 the thorax, largely suffused with fuscous in the middle ; both the recurrent nervures 

 are received before the middle of the cellules. 



Fam. LARRIDM. 



I adopt this term in the sense in which it is used by Kohl in his admirable paper, 

 "Die Gattungen und Arten der Larriden " (Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1884, p. 171). 

 As there understood, Trypoxylon is included in the family, this genus being by most 

 authors either placed in the Crabronidae or made into a distinct family — the " Trypoxy- 

 lonidae." If the strict analytical system now so much in vogue is to be followed, the 

 latter doubtless is the most logical method ; but I must confess that I question very 

 much the utility, to say nothing of a natural arrangement, of forming " families " which 

 can only be separated by one character, and that, moreover, of dubious taxonomical 

 value. 



In truth, the various groups of Sphegidae, Larridae, Bembicidae, &c, can only be 

 regarded as a complexus of genera equal in value to the Pompilidae, Mutillidae, and 

 Pormicidae ; and individually they cannot be considered as standing on the same level 

 with the latter families, which are much more clearly defined from each other than are 

 (say) the Larridae from the Bembicidae. 



