Mr. F. Smith on a new species of Hymenopterous Insect. 395 



subtuberculate at its lateral margin. The legs long and stout* 

 the tarsi strongly ciliated beneath. Abdomen highly polished and 

 shining, the petiole slightly pubescent at the base. 



Male (length 2 inches 4 lines). Black, the head quadrate above, 

 slightly narrowed posteriorly ; the mandibles have a stout tooth 

 within, nearly in the middle ; the clypeus porrect, emarginate in 

 front ; the thorax as in the female ; the wings of a metallic brown ; 

 the posterior legs have the femora club-shaped, being greatly 

 swollen at their apex above, and having a stout obtuse tooth or 

 spine at the apex within; the tibia rugged beneath with deep inden- 

 tations ; all the tarsi ciliated beneath. Abdomen more rotundate 

 than in the female; beneath, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth 

 segments are of an opake black, except at their extreme lateral 

 margins ; the basal margins of the segments depressed, the apical 

 somewhat swollen or rounded. 



This fine insect, of which both sexes are in the cabinet of the 

 British Museum, was captured at Pernambuco, Brazil, by T. P. 

 George Smith, Esq. of Liverpool, a gentleman to whom naturalists 

 are greatly indebted for his grand discoveries of new and beau- 

 tiful species in all branches of natural history. The specimens 

 figured are I believe the only ones yet captured ; and are conse- 

 quently unique in the national collection. The situation of this 

 genus is I think next to Podium, some of the species of which 

 genus it closely resembles in general aspect ; the neuration of the 

 wings is however different, the second submarginal cell receiving 

 two recurrent nervures. 



The habits of the insects of the family to which our new species 

 belongs are highly interesting, the provision stored up for their 

 young consisting in the majority of cases of spiders ; and I have 

 been informed that the large Brazilian species readily master spi- 

 ders of the largest kind, such as My gale, rendering them powerless 

 by their formidable sting ; the spiders thus attacked die a lingering 

 death, in some cases surviving five or six days. An egg is deposited 

 on the first insect stored up, so that the larva is hatched by the 

 time the cells in some instances are provisioned ; but I have ob- 

 served in this country that our common sand-wasp, Ammophila 

 vulgaris, deposits the food at intervals, so that it is fresh and 

 suited to the young larva, which lives principally on the juices and 

 softer parts, leaving the head, legs and wings untouched. Al- 

 though Arachnida are the usual prey of the majority of these in- 

 sects, still I have observed a species which at one time preys 

 upon spiders, at another choosing caterpillars, and then again 

 storing up grasshoppers when each kind of food was equally at 

 its command. Endless indeed are the variations of habit in the 

 Hymenoptera ; the more they are investigated the greater will be 

 our admiration of their wonderful instinct and tact in adapting 



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