IN\^STIGATIONS ON THE MUTILLID WASPS 227 



Jones) ; 6 females, 4 males, Rosser, June 28, 1905 (C. R. Jones) ; 2 females, 

 male, Rosser, July 6, 1905 (C. R. Jones) ; 3 females, male, Rosser, July 6, 

 1905 (F. C. Bishopp) ; female, Laclonia (C. R. Jones) ; female, Paris 

 (C. R. Jones); female, Paris; female, Barstow, July 22, 1905 (J. 0. 

 Crawford ) . 



It has been impossible to find any character or combinations of 

 characters which will separate the males of comanche from those of 

 occidentalis. The females are easily distinguished by the coarser 

 sculpture of the second abdominal segment, the black pubescence on 

 the dorsum of the propodeum and the character of the pubescence 

 generally, recumbent in occidentalis, more or less erect in comanche, 

 giving the latter a rather shaggy appearance as compared with the 

 smooth, silky appearance of occidentalis. Using these characters to 

 separate the females the two group themselves into a series from the 

 Eastern States, that is, Louisiana and Arkansas eastward, and into a 

 series from Central Western States, that is, the distribution given 

 above. Specimens that are undoubtedly occidentalis show color 

 variations ranging from pale yellow to scarlet, while specimens from 

 the west, agreeing in integumental characters with the type specimen 

 show the same color variation. Since the two forms are so readily 

 recognizable by the characters mentioned above and since a series 

 separated in this manner shows such a wide color variation it does 

 not seem possible to define comanche as a color variety of occidentalis 

 as has been previously suggested. I have seen no female specimens of 

 comanche, agreeing with the type in sculpture, from Florida or any 

 of the southeastern States. 



The males of corrbanche and occidentalis have been found to be in- 

 separable except on the basis of the information given in the locality 

 label of the specimen, that is, eastern specimens or western specimens. 

 The type male has been examined and the genitalia are the same as 

 those in occidentalis. The characters suggested by Fox (1899) in his 

 key as separating the two do not hold and it has seemed impossible 

 to find any accurate means of distinguishing them. When the hosts 

 and other biological data of the two forms become known, comanche 

 may prove to be a valid species but for the present it seems best to 

 regard it as a western variety of occidentalis. 



91. DASYMUTILLA CALORATA, new species 



Female. — Black, the front, vertex, dorsum of thorax except the 

 propodeum, second abdominal tergite except the basal sixth, and ab- 

 dominal tergites three to five clothed with long, erect, ochraeeous 

 hairs. Length, 21 mm. 



Head black, clothed with long, semi-erect, black hairs, except on the 

 front and vertex which are clothed with ochraeeous hairs; mandibles 

 acute at the tip with a tooth within ; anterior portion of clypeus con- 



