^ET. 9 DIGGER WASPS OF GENUS PODALONIA FEENALD 33 



Variation. — A series of specimens from Saiisalito, Calif., and single 

 ■examples from New Mexico and elsewhere show slight differences 

 from the more usual form of violaceipennis and for a time I considered 

 them representatives of a closely related but undescribed species. In 

 these specimens the females are shorter and stouter; have a petiole 

 no longer, and sometimes even shorter, than the hind coxa; the lat- 

 eral third of the margin of the clypeus and the side of this plate near 

 the eye, nearly half way up to the antennal insertion, are smooth; the 

 mandible has pronounced ferruginous color in its middle and the 

 under side of the antennal scape is tinged with ferruginous. 



In the male (one specimen from the Sausalito lot) it is almost 

 impossible to find any difference from the usual male violaceipennis 

 except that it is shorter and stouter. 



Examination of a long series of specimens has failed to separate 

 these entirely from the usual form, however. There are varying 

 degrees of stoutness; intermediate conditions on the clypeus between 

 close punctures and none, on the areas above indicated; gradations 

 from mandibles entirely black to those strongly ferruginous in the 

 middle, and variations in color on the under side of the scape, from 

 black all the way to the ferruginous tinge, together with great vari- 

 ations in the length of the petiole compared with that of the hind 

 femur and trochanter. Beginning with the extreme forms and arrang- 

 ing specimens in a series, from these toward the typical form of the 

 species, shows that Cresson's rohusta, in structure and proportions, 

 stands about in the middle of the row, at the other end of which is 

 the typical violaceipennis. Whether this will justify varietal names 

 is open to question but, if at all, the extreme condition at least should 

 be indicated, and specimens of this type may be termed variety 

 compacta. Specimens of this extreme degree of variation have there- 

 fore been designated as follows: Holotype female from Sausalito, 

 California; allotype male from Sausalito, California; paratype female 

 from "Mt. Shasta dist. Cal." in the collection of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, New York; two paratype females from 

 "Cal." in the collection of the American Entomological Society at 

 Philadelphia; one paratype female from "Cave Spg., N.M., Albert" 

 in the collection of the United States National Museum. 



Distribution . — Generally distributed over the southern portions of 

 Canada from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, with one specimen 

 from Fort McLeod, British Columbia (about latitude 55°), and 

 throughout the Northern United States from Maine to Washington. 

 Farther south I have seen specimens to Pennsylvania; then from 

 North Carolina and Florida. Westward it has been taken in Indiana, 

 Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and California. 

 In the more southerly localities I have seen examples from New 



