66 HYMENOPTEEA. 



Antennae thick, sparsely haired, the third joint more than one half longer than the 

 fourth. Head shining, punctured, the punctures clearly separated ; the face and cheeks 

 sparsely covered with long white hair. Clypeus truncated at the apex, projecting, 

 Mandibles indistinctly punctured, an obtuse short thick tooth below the apex, covered 

 with long hair, the hair inclining to fulvous on the lower side. Thorax shining, above 

 almost glabrous ; the sides and sternum covered with long white woolly hair ; pronotum 

 closely transversely punctured ; mesonotum obscurely pitted with indistinct, widely 

 separated punctures; scuteilum almost impunctate; mesopleura? (especially in front) 

 distinctly punctured ; median segment longitudinally striolated (but with the striol&e 

 diverging towards the apex) ; the pleurae obliquely, the oblique apex rugosely, punc- 

 tured, and with a pear-shaped, shining, impunctate depression in the centre, the apex 

 sparsely haired. Abdomen shining, impunctate, glabrous ; pygidium opaque, finely 

 and closely granulate-punctate ; the sides distinctly keeled, the keels raised above the 

 central portion, which is very slightly convex ; the extreme apex rufous. Legs shining, 

 the coxae, trochanters, and femora covered with long white woolly hair; the tibiae 

 sparsely and stoutly spined, pruinose on the outer side ; the tarsi inclining to piceous. 

 Wings deep violaceous ; the first recurrent nervure received a little beyond the middle 

 of the cellule ; second cubital cellule considerably narrowed at the top, which is not 

 much more than half the distance bounded by the second recurrent and the second 

 transverse cubital cellule ; nervures deep black. 



Length 11-12 millim. 



The colour of the body is a very deep black, inclining to plumbeous. At the top, the 

 eyes are separated by a little more than the length of the third antennal joint. The 

 pronotum has the part next the head rising obliquely but not abruptly, and thence 

 rises gradually to the apex, being but slightly convex in the centre ; the apex is raised, 

 distinctly separated by the hollow thus formed from the mesonotum, there being also a 

 distinct margin on it in front of the latter. 



Besides being considerably smaller, A. strigosa differs from A. albovillosa in the hair 

 being sparser ; the depression at the base of the clypeus deeper ; the head not projecting 

 so much in the centre in front and less punctured ; the mesonotum scarcely punctured ; 

 the scuteilum not furrowed in the middle ; the pygidial area longer, being fully one 

 and a half times the width of the base in length ; the apex of the dorsal penultimate 

 segment without a distinct fringe of hairs ; the penultimate ventral segment not 

 incised, &c. 



J 3. Astata apicipennis. (Tab. V. fig. 1.) 



Nigra; capite punctate, pleuris segmento medianeque rugoso-reticulatis, dense f useo-pilosis ; alis hyalinis, 



apice fumatis, nervis pallidis. 

 Long. 12 millim. 



Hob. Mexico, Presidio (Forrer). 



