256 BULLETIN 31, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



black, yellow near the mouth, posterior orbits broadly yellow polli- 

 nose. Thorax black, but little shining, with a slight greenish reflec- 

 tion, with three broad yellow fasciae, the first broad, extending across 

 on the anterior margin, sharply interrupted in the middle, the inner 

 hind angles sometimes extending back quite to the next fascia, second 

 band extending across from in front of the root of the wings, interrupted 

 like the preceding; third band on the posterior margin, in front of the 

 scutellum, uninterrupted; scutellum black, broadly yellow on its margin. 

 Pleurae yellow on the anterior border from the humeri to the base of the 

 anterior coxae, meso-pleurie with a vertical and sterno-])leur8e with an 

 oval, nearly contiguous, spot. Abdomen: First segment black; second 

 segment with a broad yellow cross-band, narrowly interrupted and nar- 

 rowly separated from a reddish-yellow, shining, entire cross-band, which 

 is sinuate on its anterior border, with an angular projection in the mid- 

 dle ; third and fourth segments similar; in the third the hind cross- 

 band is broadest in the middle, narrowed at the sides; in the fourth the 

 posterior cross-band forms the larger part of the segment, dilated in 

 front at the middle more sharply than in the preceding; narrow margins 

 of all the segments, except the posterior border of the fourth, black; 

 pile chiefly orange colored, lighter on the yellow bands. Legs yellow, 

 with yellow pile; tarsi and outer part of hind femora more reddish, and 

 the i)ile intermixed with black. Wings nearly hyaline, especially in the 

 first basal cell, somewhat yellowish or brownish in front, and slightly 

 clouded near the tip. 



Eight specimens (Dr. G. Dimmock, Mr. S. Henshaw, Mr. E. Keen). 



M. limbipennis Macquart, as figured by Macquart, shows very great 

 difl'ereijces, in that the marginal cell is open and the third vein nearly 

 straight. Osten Sacken, however, from an examination of the type 

 specimen in Mr. Bigot's collection, believed it to be nothing more than 

 a variety with dark wings. A single specimen from North Carolina (F. 

 P. Atkinson) has the wings very dark brown, almost blackish, in front, 

 the scutellum wholly yellow and the yellow bands of the abdomen sep- 

 arated only by slender black lines. 



SPHECOMYIA.* 



Sphecomyia Latreille, Fam. Natur. dn Regue Animal, 1825 ; Diet. Classique 



d'Hist. Nat., xv, 545, 1829. 

 TyzenhauHia Gorski, Analec. ail Ent. prov. occid. iin})eiii Rosaici, 1852, fasc. i, 



p. 170. 



Moderately large species with Hght yellow markings on head, thorax, 

 and abdomen ; the latter with a median and posterior band on segments 

 2-4. Front very short, liorirontal, concave longitudinally. Eyes bare, 

 narrowlj' separated in the male by the ocellar tubercle. Antennal pro- 

 cess moderately prominent. Antennae longer or shorter than the head. 

 Face perpendicular, obtusely tuberculate, reaching two-thirds of the 



" Sphex ; /^uza, fly. 



