HYMENOPTERA. 141 



114. POMPILUS OPTIMUS. B.M. 



Female. Length 1 1 lines. — Black : the head and thorax 

 clothed with short black pubescence, intermixed with longer erect 

 black hairs ; the metathorax has on each side at its base an ele- 

 vated tubercle, its lateral margins are elevated, and it is trans- 

 versely rugose-striate ; wings dark brown, with bright shades of 

 violet and purple iridescence ; the legs ferruginous, the coxae, 

 trochanters, and extreme base of the tibia3 black ; the tibiae and 

 tarsi spinose, the posterior tibiae strongly serrated ; the claw- 

 joiut of the tarsi black. Abdomen : the basal segment shining, 

 and thinly covered with long black pubescence ; the second and 

 following segments covered with an obscure sericeous pile. 



Hab. Port Natal. 



115. POMPILUS PRUINOSUS. B.M. 



Female. Length 6| lines. — Black : entirely covered with a fine 

 grey pile ; on the face, coxae and metathorax it is bright and 

 silvery ; the labrum, mandibles in the middle, and the palpi fer- 

 ruginous. The posterior margin of the prothorax arcuate ; a 

 fuscous stain traverses the nervure at the apex of the externo- 

 and interno-medial cells ; a similar fascia, half the width of the 

 marginal cell, passes across the wing and terminates in the middle 

 of the third discoidal cell; the wings have a narrow fuscous 

 cloud at their apical margins ; the tibiae and tarsi externally spi- 

 nose ; the basal margins of the second and thu'd segments of the 

 abdomen are destitute of silvery pile. 



Hab. Port Natal. 



116. POMPILUS RUFO-CINCTUS. B.M. 



Female. Length 4 lines. — Black : the clypeus, palpi, man- 

 dibles, and antennae ferruginous ; five or six of the apical joints 

 of the flagellum fuscous ; the face has a fine silvery pile. Tho- 

 rax : the sides beneath and the metathorax covered with a fine 

 silvery pile ; the posterior margin of the prothorax arcuate ; the 

 metathorax transversely and finely rugose; wings hyaline and 

 iridescent ; a fuscous stain traverses the externo-medial nervure, 

 and an irregular fascia runs from the base of the marginal cell to 

 the middle of the third discoidal cell ; the extreme apex of the 

 superior wings fuscous ; the tegulae and legs ferruginous. Ab- 

 domen : the apical margins of the three basal segments ferru- 

 ginous, the following segments entirely so. 



Hab. Port Natal. 



