Ill 



SPHEGIDAE ASTATIDES BEMBECIDE 



119 



this Insect, like Pelopaeus, stores its nest with spiders, and 

 Peckholt has remarked that however great may be the number of 

 spiders placed by the mother-wasp in a cell, they are all consumed 

 by the larva, none ever being found in the cell after the perfect 

 Insect escapes therefrom. The European T. figulus forms a nest 

 either in bramble-stems or in sandy soil or walls ; it makes use 

 of spiders as provisions. 



Sub-Fam. 5. Astatides. Eyes very large in the male, meeting 

 'broadly on the vertex ; two spurs on the middle tibia. 



We have two species of the genus Astata in Britain : one of 

 them A. loops is known to form burrows in the ground, each 

 of which contains only a single cell ; this, it appears, is usually 

 provisioned with bugs of the 

 genus Pentaloma, Insects re- 

 markable for their strong and 

 offensive odour. St. Fargeau 

 records that this species also 

 makes use of a small cockroach 

 for forming the food - store : 

 thus exhibiting an unique 

 catholicity in the toleration of 

 the disagreeable ; almost the 

 only point of connection be- 

 tween bus and cockroaches 



FlG ' 46 Astata 



male - Britaln - 



being their disagreeable char- 

 acter. According to Smith, Oxybelus, another genus of Fossores, 

 is also used. Authorities are far from agreement as to the 

 validity and relations of the sub-family Astatides. It consists 

 only of the widely-distributed genus Astata, with which the 

 North American Diploplectron (with one species) is doubtfully 

 associated. 



Sub - Fam. 6. Bembecides. - - Labrum frequently elongate ; 

 wing - nervures extending very near to the outer margin; 

 marginal cell of front wing not appendiculate ; mandibles 

 not emarginale externally ; kind body stout, not pedicellate. 



The elongation of the labruni, though one of the most trust- 

 worthy of the characters of the Bembecides, cannot be altogether 



