Some Ncic or Little Known South African Mutillidce. 69 



abdominal patches ; head shagreened, anterior and posterior part 

 clothed with dense, greyish white hairs ; prothorax also clothed 

 with greyish hairs, mesothorax with five longitudinal grooves, 

 scutellum produced in a thick, short triangle, metathorax with a 

 broad median groove, carinate on each side and reaching to about 

 half the length, and a supra-lateral, sub-diagonal carina coalescing at 

 about midway with the outer margin, which is also very sharp ; 

 abdomen sessile, first joint not banded, second one covered with a 

 white patch, leaving a diamond-shaped space denuded in the centre, 

 the other joints, except the apical one, have a lateral, apical band ; 

 underneath the five ultimate joints have a lateral fringe of sparse, 

 greyish hairs, and the ventral carina of the first joint is short, 

 truncate at both ends, and not incised ; wings sub- violaceous. The 

 prothorax and mesothorax are deeply and closely punctured, and 

 the metathorax closely foveate, the scutellum is thickly fringed with 

 long, greyish hairs ; the abdominal segments have shallow, spaced 

 punctures. Length 13-15^ mm. 



As closely allied to M. medon, Sm., as the female is to M. sycorax. 

 Both sexes have been sent to the museum by Colonel J. H. Bowker 

 as having been caught in copula. I have some doubts, however, as 

 to the identity of both sexes, because they are so differently marked. 

 In M. sycorax (? guineensis) the two sexes, which I have several 

 times bred from the mud nests of Pclopceus spirifex, have similar 

 markings. It is very singular that the female, which is so closely 

 allied to M. sycorax that it is difficult to distinguish the two, should 

 differ so much from the male. 



Hub. Natal (D'Urban, Frere, Estcourt) ; Transvaal (Boksburg), 

 Zarnbesia (Salisbury). 



MUTILLA PERSEPHONE. 



Female. Black, with the thorax ferruginous red, spots and bands- 

 on the abdomen silvery white ; head shagreened, briefly pubescent,, 

 slightly narrowed diagonally laterally behind the eyes, which are 

 large and very convex, the base is slightly emarginate ; it is slightly 

 wider than the thorax, which is moderately long, parallel and slightly 

 denticulate laterally past the median part, posterior declivity perpen- 

 dicular, serrulate laterally, dorsal part scrobiculate, the intervals 

 are sub-linear in the median part ; abdomen sub-sessile, elongato- 

 ovate, second segment punctulate and having two somewhat rounded 

 supra-lateral white patches situated in the median part, but a little 

 nearer to the apical than to the basal part, third segment clothed 

 with a white band broadly interrupted in the centre, apical joint 

 covered also with a dense white pubescence ; ventral carina of first 



