242 HYMENOPTERA. 



Parasphecodes vau sp. nov. 



9 , Length about 8 mm. ; head and thorax black, the clypeus 

 marked with obscure red in the same manner as it is marked with yel- 

 low in the males; abdomen robust, with the usual fine punctures, 

 dark red, including the fourth segment, first segment with a large 

 thick inverted V in black, no patches of hair, but apical half of ab- 

 domen thinly hoary, third and fourth segments with scattered black 

 bristles, apex with black hair; femora black, red at apex, tibiae and 

 tarsi red ; middle tibiae with fuscous hair on outer side ; hind spur 

 minutely denticulate ; tegulaa clear red ; wings very dusky, the apex 

 not noticeably darker than the rest ; stigma and nervures rufotestace- 

 ous, second s. m. about square, first r. n. joining second t. c. ; scutel- 

 lum and postscutellum covered with dense moss-like ochreous tomen- 

 tum, the short hair of head and thorax above generally, and the dense 

 fringe around tubercles, ochreous, but on the ventral surface of thorax 

 and abdomen it is white. Head broad ; apical half of mandibles dark 

 red ; flagellum dull ferruginous beneath ; hair of face ochreous; front 

 dull, densely rugosopunctate ; mesothorax rather shining, with small 

 and close but distinct punctures ; area of metathorax shining, its basal 

 half with very fine striae; posterior truncation smooth, without any 

 tuft at top ; pleura granular, posteriorly striated. 



Nearest, I think, to P. lacthius Sm., but distinguished by 

 the color of the clypeus, the sculpture of the metathorax, 

 etc. By the dark wings it recalls the much larger P. cirriferus. 



Had.—N. W. Australia (C. F. ; Turner collection). Brit- 

 ish Museum. 



Parasphecodes basilautus sp. nov. 



9 . Length about 8 mm. ; very close to P. vau, with the same gen- 

 eral form and colors, red area on clypeus (but more extended, leaving 

 only a couple of semi-circular black areas), sculpture of front, meso- 

 thorax and metathorax (but strias of last rather finer and more regu- 

 lar), ochreous hair-patch covering scutellum and postscutellum, etc. 

 The differences are as follows: red area of clypeus dull, impunctate 

 (in vau shining, with a few large punctures) ; head smaller ; when 

 metathorax is seen from above, the corners bounding truncation are 

 much less angular; wings hyaline orange-tinted, the apex faintly 

 dusky; femora red, a little blackened at base; hair on outer side of 

 middle tibiae entirely pale golden, as is all the hair on tibiae and tarsi ; 

 first two abdominal segments entirely red, third red with a median 

 black suffusion on basal half, fourth and following black, with coarse 

 black hair. 



d 1 . Similar but not so robust ; wings rather more dusky, and hardly 

 yellowish ; fourth abdominal segment black with the apical margin 

 broadly yellowish subhyaline, but fifth and sixth black to margin ; 



