144 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 209 



Clypeus of male of moderate size, its apical edge usually truncate 

 but sometimes variously specialized; clypeus of female large, convex, 

 the apex somewhat prolonged as a broadly rounded lobe; mentum of 

 female mth a group of about 6 to 16 long stout setae which are 

 parted basally into right and left groups; front tibia without one of 

 its apical bristles specialized; dorsal edge of hind tibia smooth; last 

 tarsal segment without preapical bristles beneath; propodeum nearly 

 always (always in the Nearctic species) with long sparse erect hairs; 

 first tergite without a line separating off the epipleuron; female with 

 an oval hairless p^^gidial area; male subgenital plate rather large, 

 with a high sharp longitudinal ridge. 



Spinola included only one species in his genus Auplopus, the 

 Fabrician Pompilus Jemoratus. He noted some disagi-eements in 

 color between his specimens and Fabricius' description of Jemoratus, 

 but nevertheless referred them to this species. Richards (1937, 

 The generic names of British insects, vol. 5, p. 126) states that Spinola's 

 "variety" of jemoratus, rather than femoratus itself, is the type of 

 Auplopus and Pate (1946, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 72, p. 76) 

 concurs. It seems clear, however, that for nomenclatorial purposes 

 the one species originally included was Fabricius' Pompilus femoratus , 

 and this must be the type species. 



The original description of Pompilus femoratus is not sufficient for 

 a modern generic assignment, but Dahlbom (1843-45, Hymenoptera 

 Em-opaea . . . , vol. 1) examined the type and indicated its generic 

 characters in the following way: On page 93 (1843) he describes 

 Agenia fulvipes from females from Pennsylvania and South Carolina, 

 mentioning the polished pygidium and clypeal shape so characteristic 

 of the present genus. On page xix (1845?) he states that he has 

 studied the type of Pompilus femoratus, and on page 455 (1845) he 

 synonymizes his fulvipes with femoratus, thus indicating that the 

 type oi femoratus had the pygidial area and clypeal shape he described 

 ioT fulvipes and that otherwise the types appeared conspecific to him. 

 Dahlbom's fulvipes can be none other than the Nearctic species 

 mellipes Say, but I suspect that femoratus (described from South 

 America) is a distinct though closely related species. The original 

 description of femoratus states that the femora are ferruginous and 

 the rest of the legs blacldsh. In mellipes mellipes the legs beyond 

 the coxae are entirely ferruginous. There are several common 

 Neotropical species which greatly resemble mellipes but which differ 

 from it in the leg colors called for in the description of femoratus. 



Auplopus is a very large genus, best represented in the warmer 

 parts of the world. In the Old World tropics the species have much 

 structural diversity and Banks has considered some of the more 

 conspicuous segregates genera, as indicated in the synonymy above. 



