3i8 INSECT LIFE 



cence ; a narrow yellow band on each side, on the inner edge of 

 the eyes ; mandibles — yellow with brown tips ; antennae — black 

 above, pale red below ; lower face of their basal joint, yellow. 

 Two small distant points on the prothorax ; scales of wings and 

 postscutellum, yellow. A yellow band on third segment of the 

 abdomen, and another on the fifth ; these two are deeply 

 hollowed on the anterior edge — the first in a semicircle, the 

 second in a triangle. 



Under part of the body all black ; coxae black ; thighs of 

 the hinder pair of legs quite black ; those of the two anterior 

 pairs, black at base, yellow at the ends ; legs and tarsi, yellow ; 

 wings rather smoke-coloured. Female. — Var. (i) Prothorax 

 without yellow dots ; (2) two small yellow dots on second 

 segment of abdomen ; (3) wider yellow band on inner side of 

 the eyes ; (4) front of clypeus edged with yellow. 



Male unknown to me. This Cerceris, the smallest of my 

 part of France, feeds its larvae on the smallest kinds of weevils 

 (Bruchus granarius and Apion gravidum). Observed round 

 Carpentras, where it builds in September in soft sandstone — 

 locally called safre. 



Bembex julii, H. Fab. 



Length — 18-20 miUimetres. Black, with bristling whitish 

 hairs on head, thorax, and base of first segment of the 

 abdomen ; labrum lengthened, yellow ; clypeus, with a sloping 

 ridge, forming as it were an angle of three sides — one face — 

 that of the outer edge — is all yellow, while each of the two 

 others is marked with a large rectangular black patch border- 

 ing on its neighbour, and thus forming a stripe ; both marks, 

 as well as the cheeks, are covered with a fine silvery down ; 

 cheeks on line between the antennas, yellow ; posterior edge of 

 eyes with a long yellow border ; mandibles — yellow, with brown 

 tips ; two first joints of antennas yellow beneath, black above, 

 the rest black ; prothorax — black ; sides and dorsal division, 

 yellow ; mesothorax — black ; the callous point, and a small 

 one on each side above the base of the intermediate feet, 

 yellow ; metathorax — black, with two yellow dots behind, and a 

 larger one on each side above the base of the hind feet. The 

 two first dots are sometimes wanting. 



Abdomen — bright black above and without hairs, except at 



