394 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxi. 



ances, particularly when examples from the southern United States 

 and from the West Indies are compared. 



Length. — Males, 17-20 mm. 



It is possible that this insect may prove to be the Sphex dorsalls of 

 Lepeletier, but if so Lepeletier's description must have been made 

 from one of the more ferruginous specimens. Several collections in 

 this countr}^ have examples of O. spiniger labeled Sphex hahena Say. 

 This error is due to the misidentification of the specimens by Cresson. 

 Cameron's description of Sphex singuJarls may perhaps be of chis 

 insect, but the absence of some points from his description pre^ ent 

 any positive conclusions being reached. 



1 \\w\Q studied examples of Chlor'ion sjjhiiger from Florida, Louisi- 

 ana, Mississippi, Texas, Santo Domingo, Barbados, Dominica, and 

 Trinidad. Kohl records it from ^Mexico and Brazil. In quite a large 

 lot of specimens of Chlorion from the above-named West Indian 

 Islands all the males were spiniger and all the feuiales dnHtufum 

 which is rather suggestive of a relation between these species and 

 which is considered under duhiiation. 



CHLORION (PROTEROSPHEX) DUBITATUM (Cresson). 



II /.S^j/i^.r dors«//s Smith, Cat. Hym. Brit. Mus., IV, 1856, -p. 259. 



||6|/j/)e.r m'iim?is Taschenberg, Zeits. f. d. ges. Naturw., XXXIV, 1869, p. 419. 



Sphex dubitata Cresson, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, IV, 1872, p. 213. 



Sphex ichneumonea Cameron, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Hym., II, 1889, p. 34. 



Sphex ichneumoneus var. dorsalis Kohl, Ann. natur. Hofmus. Wien, V, 1890, p. 431. 



Sphex duhitatus Fox, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 377. 



Ti/pe. — Cresson described Sphex dubitafd from three females in the 

 Belfrage collection. In the collection of the American Entomological 

 Society are three specimens marked ''Type," one of which bears the 

 following label in Cresson's handwriting: 



In the National Museum is a female marked "Texas Belfrage. Type 

 No. 1686.-' Whi<-h one of these four is not entitled to cotype value I 

 am luiable to .say. 



Rather small, slender insects; body, to and including the petiole, 

 black; abdomen black and ferruginous, as are the legs; wings gen- 

 erally quite hyaline, sometimes more or less fuliginous; pubescence 

 golden to silver}'. 



Female. — Head <]uite broad; clypeus and frons pale golden pubes- 

 cent nearl}^ to the level of the ocelli and with numerous long hairs of 

 the same color: anterior margin of the frons evenl}' rounded, with two 



