ASTATA. 65 



ASTATA. 



Astatus, Latreille, Precis des caract. gen. des Ins. p. 114 (17*96). 

 Astata, Latreille, Hist. Nat. des Crust, et des Ins. xiii. p. 297 (1805). 



Of this genus upwards of forty species are known, from all the zoological regions. 



a. Abdomen black. 

 j 



l. Astata albovillosa. (Tab. v. fig. 3, $ .) 



Nigra, longe albo-hirta, punctata ; segmento mediali striokto ; alis fusco-violaceis, nervis nigris. $ . 

 Long. 16-17 millim. 



Hab. Guatemala, Sa»n Geronkno (Champion). 



Basal joint of the antennae strongly punctured, covered with long greyish hairs ; the 

 third joint one and three quarter times longer than the fourth, slightly curved, and 

 gradually thickened towards the apex. Head shining, covered with long greyish hair, 

 in front rounded, bulging out in the middle, closely covered with shallow punctures, 

 which are much fewer in number on the vertex. Clypeus with the apex in the middle 

 almost transverse, slightly projecting. Mandibles (especially on the basal half) bearing 

 large punctures, and with rather long brownish hairs. Eyes at the top separated by 

 about the length of the fourth and fifth antennal joints united. Thorax shining, punc- 

 tured, but not strongly, the basal half of the scutellum almost entirely impunctate, the 

 median segment longitudinally striolated ; the hair on the top is fuscous, on the pleurae 

 and sternum it is longer and cinereous. Median segment with a gradual slope ; the 

 scutellum with a furrow in the centre. Abdomen nearly as long as the meso- and 

 metathorax united, shining, with some punctures; the base, the sides, and ventral 

 surface sparsely covered with pale hairs ; the penultimate dorsal segment is pale at the 

 apex, and bears there a fringe of fuscous hair. Pygidial area a little longer than the 

 width of the base, glabrous, rugosely punctured; the sides raised and spinose-haired 

 throughout ; the apex rounded, reddish. Penultimate segment incised at the apex 

 and depressed in the middle. Coxae and trochanters thickly, and the femora more 

 sparsely, covered with long grey hair, the tibiae and tarsi thickly spinose ; the spines 

 on the hind tarsi and the claws more or less rufous. Eadial cellule a little shorter 

 than the second and third cubital cellules united, its apical nervure curved ; the first 

 cubital nervure is shorter than the second, which is more than twice the length of the 

 third ; the second cubital nervure at the top is one fourth shorter than the space 

 bounded by the recurrent nervures. 



>i 2. Astata strigosa. 



Astatus strigosus, Kohl, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xxxviii. p. 147 \ 



Hab. Mexico, Orizaba (BilimeJc l ) ; Costa Rica, Cache (Rogers). 



As I am not quite sure about the identity of the Costa-Rican specimen with Kohl's 

 species, I give a description of it : — 



biol. centk.-amek., Hymenopt., Vol. II., March 1890. kk 



?A. &A- 



