ELIS. 233 



the fore tarsi rufous. The basal abdominal segment has the apical half yellow, the 

 yellow being in the middle slightly produced and incised ; the second segment is entirely 

 yellow, except the external base and apex ; the third segment may be almost entirely 

 yellow, or the yellow may be narrowed and incised in the middle. The wings are 

 uniformly fusco-violaceous, or they may be darker along the costa, the costa and the 

 nervures black. 



This species is not unlike E. thoracica (Fabr.) ; but the yellow bands on the abdomen, 

 the strongly punctured vertex, and the very closely punctured median segment separate 

 it at once. From E. plumipes, the black hair on the head and thorax, the much more 

 strongly punctured vertex and thorax, and the uninterrupted large yellow band on the 

 second segment serve to distinguish it. 



12. Elis trifasciata. 



Tiphia trifasciata, Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. p. 226 1 ; Syst. Piez. p. 235 2 . 



Scolia trifasciata, King, in Weber & Mohr's Beitr. i. p. 32 3 ; Burm. Abh. Nat. ges. Halle, i. 4, 



p. 30 4 ; Smith, Cat. Hymen. Ins. iii. p. 108 5 . 

 Elis trifasciata, Sauss. Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1858, p. 245 6 ; Sauss. & Sichel, Cat. Sp. Gen. Seolia, 



pp. 247, 310 7 . 

 Scolia radula, Fabr. Syst. Piez. p. 242 8 ; Burm. Abb. Nat. ges. Halle, i. 4, p. 28 9 . 

 Colpa alexandri, Lep. de St.-Fargeau, Hist. Nat. Ins. Hymen, iii. p. 543 10 . 



Hab. North America 378 , South Carolina 9 — Mexico, Northern Sonora {Morrison), 

 Omilteme 8000 feet, and Amula 6000 feet, both in Guerrero (&. H. Smith), Orizaba 

 (E. H. Smith & F. D. G), Temax in North Yucatan (Gaumer) ; Guatemala, San Jose 

 (Champion). — South America 3 , Caracas 7 , Cayenne 7 , Amazons 7 , Brazil 4 5 7 9 ; Antilles, 

 Cuba 7 , Haiti 7 , Guadaloupe, Martinique 9 , St. Thomas, San Martin 7 . 



Two specimens of what I cannot but regard as a variety of this species, notwithstanding 

 a very marked difference in the alar neuration, have been received from North Yucatan ; 

 both of them are, unfortunately, very much rubbed, but there is every appearance of the 

 head and thorax having been covered with fulvous pubescence as in typical E. trifas- 

 ciata. The remarkable point about them is that they have the neuration of Liacos, 

 that is to say, instead of the two recurrent nervures running parallel or nearly so as in 

 typical Elis, and not touching each other, the first recurrent instead of proceeding to 

 the cubital nervure does not touch it at all, but runs into the second recurrent nervure, 

 thus forming a closed petiolate discoidal cellule. Although, as stated, I have seen two 

 specimens with this type of neuration, yet I must regard it as an aberration and not 

 typical of the true Liacos, which is only known from the Oriental and Australian 

 zoological regions. Moreover, in one example the first recurrent nervure in the left 

 wing runs into the second, and in the right wing the second nervure runs into the first, 

 quite close to the cubital nervure ; and in another specimen the recurrent nervures in 



biol. centr.-amer., Hymenopt., Vol. II., October 1893. 2 hh 



