182 sphegidjE. 



Genus ASTATA. 



Astatus, Latr. Precis Car act. Gen. Ins. p. 114 (1796). 

 Astata, Latr. Hist. Nat. 0)-nd. et Ins. t. iii, p. 336 (1802). 

 Dimorpha, Panz. Krit. Hevis. Faun. Deutschl. ii, p. 126 (1806). 

 Dryudella, pt., Spin. Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1843, t. i, p. 135. 



Type, A. hoops, Schrank. 

 Uange. Both hemispheres. 



Head wider than the thorax ; mandibles not emarginate or 

 incised on their outer margins, bluntly toothed on the inner side 

 close to the apex; eyes very large, strongly convergent at top, 

 in the S meeting on the central line of the vertex ; ocelli com- 

 plete, round, placed in a triangle below the vertex ; antennae fili- 

 form, inserted low down on the front, just above 

 the clypeus ; prouotum depressed below the level 

 of the mesonotum ; legs thick, the tibiae and tarsi 

 ( $ ) thickly, {S) less densely spinose, intermediate 

 tibiae with two apical spurs ; abdomen short, some- 

 what cordate or conical in shape, in the J flattened 

 above. Wings with one radial and three cubital 

 cells, the former long, narrow, roundly truncate 

 at apex and appendicidate ; the 1st cubital cell 

 ^a'ailis~A ^ '^^"^ obliquely oval, divided transversely by an obsolete 

 or nearly obsolete nervure ; 2nd cubital cell sub- 

 triangular, receiving both recurrent nervures ; 3rd obliquely quad- 

 rate, the opposite sides nearly parallel. 



The large eyes and short conical abdomen of these insects make 

 them closely resemble, in form, certain kinds of Diptera. Astata 

 is eminently a sand-\^asp, burrowing in hard sandy banks and 

 storing its nests with larvae of various species of Hemiptera ; and 

 the late Mr. F. Smith records having seen the English species of 

 A. hoops conveying to its nest specimens of an allied hymeno- 

 pterous insect, Oxybelus. 



Key to the Species. 



A. Abdomen wholly black A. nii/ricans, p. 183. 



B. Abdomen red and black. 



a. Of comparatively large size (L. 10-1.'^ nnn.) ; 



mesouotum anteriorly carinated and fur- 

 rowed A. orientalis, p. 183. 



b. Smaller (L. 7-10 mm.) ; mesonotum simple. 

 a'. Median segment above enclosed by 



lateral convergent furrows A. maculifrons, p. 183. 



b'. Median segment not furrowed laterally. 

 «'•'. Median segment long, finely longi- 

 tudinally reticulate A. agilis, p. 184. 



h^. Median segment comparatively short, 



coarsely reticulate A. tarda, p. 184. 



