NO. 1487. NORTH AMERICAN DIGGER WASPS— FERN A LD. 897 



the metatarsus in length, meso- and metapleural pubescent .spots are 

 usuall}' entirely absent and when present are ver}' slioht, and the pu- 

 bescence o-enerally averages paler than in ie/meurno/ieui/i, though in 

 southern specimens there may be little difference in this regard. As 

 /nicavs is preoccupied, however, duhitnUiin Cresson is the nainc which 

 must ])e applied to this species. 



Accepting (luhitatuiu as a good species wc hnd that all th(» spcciint>ns 

 are females. A closely related species is/^jj/'/ilc/e/', of which oidy males 

 are known, found in the same territory, and in quite a collection of 

 these insects from the West Indies which 1 have studied, every female 

 was dnhitdtmn and every male was xplnUjti'. Taking these facts into 

 consideration, I am of the opinion that these species will ultimately 

 prove to be identical, and not a subspecies of iclmrtt.tnonciDn^ but a 

 valid species. 



CHLORION (PROTEROSPHEX) MAXIMILIANI (Kohl). 



Sphe.r ina.rimilianl Kohl, Ann. natiir. Hofinus. Wien, V, 1S9I), p. 429. 



Medium sized, rather robust insects; head and thorax black; abdo- 

 men and legs black and ferruginous, the amount and distribution 

 varying; pubescence golden to pale; quite hairy, the hairs being golden 

 or paler; wings quite hyaline, somewhat tinged with yellowisii near 

 the l)ase, rather fuliginous on the outer margins. 



Female. — Not seen by me. Notes on differences from the male, 

 taken from KohTs description, are given below. 



2Lale. — Head rather large; clypeus and frons to above the antennie 

 covered with golden pubescence and numerous long golden hairs; 

 anterior margin of the clypeus black, somewhat emarginate; frons 

 scatteringly, rather coarsely punctured above, with long 3'ellow hairs; 

 vertex and cheeks rather more closely punctured, covered with long- 

 yellow hairs, particularly long and dense on the lower part of the 

 cheeks where there is also some golden pubescence; cheeks about half 

 the width of the eyes; inner margins of the e^'^es slightly converging 

 downward; antenn;e black except the scape which is tinged with dark 

 ferruginous below and bears luuncrous dull yellow hairs on its lower 

 and iimer sides; ffrst segment of the filament longest, slightly larger 

 toward its tip; mandibles two-toothed, black except for a pale yellow- 

 ish fm-ruginous band at the base of the teeth, slightly punctured below, 

 and with a partial fringe of short yellow hairs on the lower margin. 



Thnr<(,f. — Covered everywhere except on the scutellum with quite 

 long yellowish hair ; collar with its anterior and posterior faces nearly 

 vertical, the latter not closely appressed against the mesonotum; d( r- 

 sal edge of the collar evenly rounded, highest in the middle, covered 

 with yellow (sometimes pale) pubescence; the hairs so thickly cover 

 the surface as to conceal all marking;s; prothoracic lobe with a narrow, 

 Proc. N. M. vol. xxxi— 06 26 



