374 PROCEEDINQS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxi. 



This is one of our most beautiful species of Chlorion, its brilliant 

 pubescence and ferruginous abdomen making it very noticeable, 

 though in some cases the latter is darker and consequent!}^ less prom- 

 inent. It is found rarely in the Southern States, examples having 

 been taken in North Carolina; Cameron and New Orleans Louisiana; 

 (July, and August "20, 1903); and in Texas (Dallas and elsewhere). 



Cresson in his original description refers to a variety having a black 

 abdomen, of which he had one specimen, and sa3's: "Should the 

 variety with black abdomen prove to be a distinct species, it may be 

 named Jllu.strls.'''' This insect is Say's Sphex habena, and as its sub- 

 specitic relation to lautuvi Cresson has not as 3'et been demonstrated 

 it is included in this paper under Say's name. 



CHLORION (PROTEROSPHEX) HABENUM (Say). 



^phex hdbena Say, Ins. of Louisiana, 1H32, p. 14. 



Sphex hnhemi Say, LeConte ed., I, 1859, p. 308. 



Sphex laitia var. illustris Cresson, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, IV, 1872, p. 210. 



Sphex lanta var. illustris Kohl, Ann. natur. Hofnuis. Wien, V, 1890, p. 447. 



Sphex Jitiheim Kohi., Ann. natur. Hofnuis. Wien, X, 1895, p. 70. 



Type. — Say's type was from Louisiana. It is no longer in existence. 

 Cresson's type of hiida var. (Uusirls is in the collection of the Ameri- 

 can Entomological Society in Philadelphia, where 1 have studied it 

 with care. 



Body everywhere black; legs black; pul)escence golden; wings hya- 

 line, tinged with yellow, their outer margins somewhat fuliginous; 

 large, robust insects. 



Female. — Head quite large, quadrangular, the eyes and cheeks being 

 quite full; clypeus and frons to the ocelli densely pubescent and with 

 many long, goKlen hairs, longer and stouter on the clypeus; front 

 margin of the cl3'peus evenly, strongly rounded, with a hollow at the 

 middle, from which arise a pair of broad, blunt teeth, separated by a 

 notch; frons above the pubescence, the vertex and the cheeks, except 

 where pubescent, sericeous black with a dark brownish tinge; distance 

 between the lateral ocelli less than between them and the eyes; just 

 behind the ocelli is a transverse-oval, slightly raised area; frons, ver- 

 tex, and cheeks with scattered punctures and rather long, golden hairs, 

 the latter being coarsest and longest on the lower part of the cheeks 

 which at their middle are nearly as wide as the e3'es; behind the mid- 

 dle of the eye is a rather triangular pubescent spot; inner margins of 

 the eyes parallel; antennse black, the scape with numerous short, yel- 

 low or golden hairs, particularly on the inner side; filament black seri- 

 ceous, velvet}'; relative length of the filament segments g'5, g^o? h^ \St 

 ^^\ mandibles black, stout, two-toothed, the terminal tooth extending 

 beyond the base of the other mandible; their antei-ior surface with 

 numerous slightly oblique striai or aciculations; posterior edge with a 



