INVESTIGATIONS ON THE MUTILLID WASPS 153 



Abdomen black; first tergite short, coarsely punctured at the base 

 and apex and with long, black hairs on the punctate areas; second 

 tergite with very large, sparse shallow punctures on the lateral mar- 

 gins, coarsely reticulato-punctate on the disk, with rather sparse, 

 golden recumbent and erect hairs on the lateral and extreme basal 

 margins; tergites 3-5 with recumbent and erect golden hairs similar 

 to those on the disk of tergite 2; pygidium coarsely, longitudinally 

 striate throughout; second sternite coarsely punctured, the punctures 

 scattered on the disk, close at the sides ; sternites 3-5 very closely and 

 confluently punctured, the punctures smaller than on sternite 2; all 

 the sternites with a fringe of black hair on the apical margins. 



Legs black, clothed with long black hairs. 



Holotype.—Femnle, Cat. No. 40727, U.S.N.M., Victoria, Tex., 

 August 28 (A. W. Morrill). 



Paraiypes. — Female, Gillette, Tex., Karnes County, July 25, 1917 ; 

 female, Texas, in collections of J. Bequaert and the American Ento- 

 mological Society of Philadelphia. 



In color and superficial appearance this species is much like gorgon, 

 Idugii, magnifica, and nogalensis. It may be distinguished from 

 gorgon by the following characters : head narrower than the thorax, 

 antennal scrobes carinate above (in gorgon the head is as wide or 

 wider than the thorax and the antennal scrobes are not carinate 

 above) ; from klugii as follows: genae not as coarsely punctate as the 

 front and vertex and without any indication of a longitudinal carina 

 (in klugii the genae are sculptured the same as the front and vertex 

 and there is an obscure longitudinal carina on the genae) ; from 

 magnif,ca by the same characters as klugii, and the black apical 

 fringes of the abdominal sternites (in miagni-flca there is a prominent, 

 longitudinal carina on the genae and the abdominal sternites have 

 apical fringes of reddish hairs) ; from nogalensis as follows : first 

 segment of flagellum short, not more than one and one-half times 

 longer than it is wide at the apex, abdomen black, sternites with 

 apical fringes of black pubescence, and hind femora simple not trun- 

 cate at the apex and truncations sulcate (in nogalensis the first seg- 

 ment of the flagellum is more than twice as long as it is broad at the 

 apex, the abdomen is red, the sternites clothed with reddish pubes- 

 cence, and the hind femora are squarely truncate at the apex, the 

 surface of the truncations sulcate). 



48. DASYMUTILLA MELANIPPE var. CONFORMIS, new variety 



Female. — Dark mahogany red, clothed with black pubescence, 

 except the vertex, dorsum of thorax, dorsum of propodeum, and dor- 



