1922.] 89 



The type is from Haifa, Palestine, 14. vii. 1921 ; the ])aratype from 

 the same locality, 12. vi. 1921. 



This species is easily recognised b}^ the very peculiar shape of the 

 male cerci, as well as by the coloration, especially that of the antennae. 



London. 



January 19i'2. 



SPHEC0DE8 8CABRIC0LLI8 Wesm. IN SOMEESET, AND DESCRIPTION 

 OF 2 OF S. KERSHAWI Peek. 



BY E. C. L. PERKINS, M.A., D.SC, F.B.S. 



In this Magazine for 1917 (p. 47) I brought forward S. scahricoUis 

 Wesm. as British on the evidence of a S in the Kirby collection, where 

 it stood in the series of S. divisiis K. {siinilis Wesm.). This specimen 

 was no doubt obtained about 120 years ago, and in the great number of 

 British Sphecodes that have passed through my hands I have seen no 

 other, nor is there any i-ecord of another. 



Recently amongst some Hymenoptera sent to me for determination 

 by Col. T. Jermyn I found a fine 5 Sphecodes which was evidently 

 new to me, and I have little doubt that this is the other sex of the 

 scahricoUis in Kirby's collection. 



8. scali'icollis is one of the rarest of European Sphecodes, and 

 the 2 is very imperfectly known. Dr. E.. Meyer, in his recent work on 

 the genus, suspects that v. Hagens confused this sex with that of the 

 almost equally rare S. schenJcii, the descriptions of these being almost 

 identical, and he himself did not know the 5 of scahricoUis. 



The following is a description of the Somerset specimen : — 



Size of -S. pellucidus (pilifrons), black, the apical part of the mandibles red, 

 the last tarsal joint of all the legs more or less testaceous. The two basal 

 abdominal segments are red and a basal spot is visible on each side of the third, 

 which, like the preceding, is red beneath. Face very wide, the temples very 

 strongly rounded off behind the eyes, much as in giihus, the clypeus dull and 

 less coarsely punctured thiiu in that species ; antennae blackish fuscous beneath, 

 hardly at all inclined to rufescence. The front and vertex of the head are very 

 roughly sculptured, in some aspects appearing very rugose, but in others the 

 dense punctures causing the rugosity are easily seen, though they are very 

 much less definite and deep than those of the mesonotum, and the head is quite 

 dull as compared with the latter. Face beneath the antennae densely clothed 

 with pale hairs, mesonotum and vertex more thinly with finer, erect ones, 

 amongst which there appear to be a few darker hairs intermixed. Mesonotum 

 in the middle with coarse, deep punctures, more or less irregular, and leaving 

 considerable, smooth, polished spaces between them, but where they are close 



I 



