NO. U87. NORTH AMERICAN DIGGER WASPS— FERNALD. 371 



CHLORION (PROTEROSPHEX) LAUTUM (Cresson). 



Sphex Inula Cresson, I'emalt', Trans. Am. Kiit. Soc, IV, 1872, p. 212. 

 Sphex cJn-i/mj)horiis Kohl, female, Ann. natur. Hofmus. Wien, V, 1890, ]). 81)9. 

 Sphex laiilus Kohl, Ann. natur. Hofmus. Wien, X, 1890, p. 447. 

 Sphex lanclger Kohl, male, Ann. natur. Hofnms. Wien, X, 1895, p. 55. 



Types. — Described from live specimen.s, indicated as females (prob- 

 ably one of these was the variety also mentioned, leaving four real 

 t3'pes). One male is now in the collection of the American Entomo- 

 logical Society, labeled " S. lauta Cr.," in Cresson's handwriting; and 

 another specimen, also a male, from Texas, is also present. In the col- 

 lection of the \J. S. National Museum are two specimens from "Texas, 

 Belfrage," marked "Type No. 1687." These are male and female. 

 In the collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, of Harvard 

 College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a female specimen marked 

 "Dallas, Tex., Boll, 46, Type 521, Sphex lauta Cr." As the five 

 .specimens came from " Bclfrage, Boll, Heiligbrodt," this would 

 account for all except the Heiligbrodt material, which is probably that 

 retained by Cresson at Philadelphia. It would seem that the sexes were 

 not correctly given in the printed description. 



The following description was prepared from the National Museum 

 types, with additional notes from other specimens: 



Large, robust, body to and including the petiole black; abdomen 

 pale ferruginous; wings hyaline; pubescence abundant, golden yellow. 



Female. — Head broad, rounded oval from above, the cheeks though 

 broad being retreating; clypeus covered everywhere except on the 

 very anterior margin with dense golden yellow pubesence continued 

 up over the f rons to the level of the ocelli, the surface also bearing 

 very numerous, long yellow hairs; anterior margin of the clypeus 

 strongly rounded, with a hollow at the middle, from which arise two 

 broad, blunt teeth the tips of which extend to the outline of the gen- 

 eral curve of the margin, and between which is a shallow notch; ver- 

 tex black sericeous, very minutely punctured; just behind the ocelli is 

 an oblong-oval, slightly elevated, velvet}^ black area; the entire vertex 

 with scattered, short yellow hairs; cheeks nearly as broad as the eyes, 

 but sloping inward quite sharply; with a dense golden pubescent spot 

 near the middle and with many long yellow hairs below and behind 

 this spot; inner margins of the eyes parallel; antennas dull black, the 

 scape quite stout, very slightly sericeous or pubescent beneath and 

 with a few longer yellow hairs on the upper and inner sides; first seg- 

 ment of the filament the longest, its diameter a little the greatest near 

 its outer end; mandibles large, stout, dark ferruginous, particularly 

 on the large, stout terminal tooth, with short longitudinal acicidations 

 on the under surface of the basal portion, and with long yellow hairs 

 behind. 



