28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



side. Apparently the species is darker colored in the eastern part 

 of its range and lighter in the western part. 



Davis's types came from Mount Washington, New Hampshire; the 

 National Museum material consists of two females and two males 

 from Nerepis, New Brunswick (A. G. Leavitt), a female from Southern 

 Illinois (Robertson), a female from Colorado, and a female from 

 Sonoma County, California. 



POLYSPHINCTA (POLYSPHINCTA) STRIGIS Howard. 



Polysphincta (Zatypota) strigis Howard, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vol. 2, 1892, p. 

 291, female. Type.— Cat. No. 2682, U.S.N.M. 



Discusion based on type and three other females. 



This species stands as a connecting link between the subgenera 

 Polysphincta and Zatypota, but is referred to the former on account of 

 the prominent lateral elevations of the tergites and the long ovi- 

 poster. In the almost obliterated intercubitus, the complete apical 

 furrows on the tergites, and the unbroken nervellus it is allied to 

 Zatypota. 



Head and thorax polished; clypeus strongly convex, apex and 

 clypeal furrow evenly arched; malar space nearly as long as basal 

 width of mandible; face much longer than wide below, weakly con- 

 vergent toward clypeus, with a median longitudinal elevation; eye 

 barely sinuate within; temples rather strongly rounded; mesoscutum 

 obscurely punctate, notauli complete and strong; propodeum with 

 dorsal carinae strong, parallel to middle where they curve outward 

 and extend to the lateral carinae, which extend forward to about the 

 middle; legs slender, hind tarsus nearly as long as tibia, basitarsus 

 shorter than next two joints combined, last joint about as long as 

 third; intercubitus very short, stigma rather broad, radius in middle; 

 nervellus unbroken; first tergite with carinae strong to beyond middle 

 and a very deep oblique impression apicall}^ on each side; tergites 

 2-5 with rather prominent lateral elevations, 2 and 3 with complete 

 apical impressions; ovipositor more than one and a half times as long 

 as first tergits. 



Black to piceous, with mesothorax piceous to rufous; legs strami- 

 neous, v/ith hind femur more or less fuscous out side, apices of hind 

 and middle tibiae and their tarsi except basal half of basitarsi, and 

 faint indication of basal annulus fuscous, darker on hind legs. 



The type was reared from Epeira strix at Seacliif, Long Island. 

 Dr. L. O. Howard has described its cocoon in connection with his 

 description of the species. One of the other specimens is from 

 Oswego, New York, one from Vancouver, British Columbia, and the 

 third, which is in the Fitch collection, probably from New York. 



