1884. J 271 



2. POMPILUS PECTINIPES, ,^ . 



Of this red-bodied species, whose ? is certaiuly not rare in sandy 

 localities and is easily distinguishable by the posterior emargination 

 of the prothoras being curved instead of sharply angular, the ($ is at 

 present unknown in this country. On the Continent, Wesmael and 

 Thomson have assigned to it a (^ with a rounded emargination, but no 

 such ^ has occurred here. F. Smith's supposed ^ is that of chalybeatus. 

 So far as my experience goes I have only found pectinipes in localities 

 where Evagethes hicolor also occurs, and I suspect that the ? of the 

 latter is found sometimes with 3 sub-marginal cells and sometimes with 



2. whereas the ^ always or nearly always has 2 only, but the only hope 

 of solving this is for collectors to take all the ^ Pompili they can 

 find where the ? pectinipes occurs, on chance of finding its missing 

 partner. 



3. Crabeo cltpeatus, Linn. 



This very distinct species appears only to have been taken by 

 r. Smith in 1848 and 1853 at Weybridge, the triangular head of the 

 (J (the apex of the triiingle forms the base of the head) and the large 

 deep puncturation of the abdomen in both sexes, distinguish it im- 

 mediately ; the abdomen is banded with yellow. 



4. Yespa arborea. Smith. 



This to me is a most mysterious insect. Only females so far 

 have been recognised, and they certainly differ from those of the allied 

 species in having the basal segment of the abdomen unusually long. 

 But why in a social insect like a wasp should the female occur singly, 

 and no workers or males be found ? One would have thought that 

 where one sex occurred the others would occur also. It belongs to 

 the group with the scape of the antennse yellow in fi'ont, but has the 

 eyes touching the mandibles or nearly so, whereby it may be at once 

 known from si/lvestris or norvegica. 



5. Sphecodes. 



The species of this genus are very difficult to distinguish, and 

 probably several new species would reward careful collectoi's. The 

 one point to be observed is that the genital armature of the ^ be 

 pulled out so as to be visible, and also the 6th segment in the $ , as 

 the specific characters are chiefly derived from these parts — the ? 

 appears in June and July, the i^ in July and August. 



