192 SPHEGID^. 



in certain lights; pygidial area short, truncate posteriorly, and 

 covered with a thin short silvery pubescence : wings hyaline, 

 obscurely fuscescent towards the apex ; nervures and tegulie 

 testaceous. 



Hah. Mussooree. d' . Length 8 ; exp. 16 mm. $ unknown. 

 Type in coll. Eothney. 



Genus TACHYSPHEX. 



Sphex, pt., Lmn. Syst. Nat. ed. x, i, p. 569 (1758). 

 Lyrops, pt., Latr. Gen. Crust. Ins. iv, p. 71 (1809). 

 Tachytes, pt., Shuck. Ess. Ind. Foss. Hym. p. 89 (1837). 

 Tachysphex, Kohl, Deutsch. ent. Zeit. xxvii, 1883, p. 166. 



Type, T.Jiliconiis, Kohl. 

 Range. Both hemispheres. 



\ / 

 Fig. 43. — Tachysphex testaceipes, cj" . | 



Of longer, slighter shape than Tachytes ; head not much broader 

 than the thox'ax, the mandibles with an incision on their outer 

 margiu, the inner margin bidentate ; the clypeus and the face 

 pai'tially with golden or silvery pubescence or pile ; antennse 

 filiform ; eyes convergent at top ; ocelli placed on a convexity, the 

 anterior ocellus round, the hinder two lengthened, nearly reuiform, 

 placed obliquely, flat and undefined ; pronotum depressed below 

 the level of the mesonotum, its posterior margin transverse ; the 

 apical abdominal segment with a pygidial area, triangular in the $ , 

 trapeziform in the S , either entirely bare, or with only a thin 

 covering of hair allowing the sculpture to be plainly seen. Wings 

 — the fore wing with one radial and three cubital cells ; the radial 

 cell usually more truncate at apex than in Tachytes, with a 

 broader appendicular cell; cubital cells as in Tachytes, the 2nd 

 receiving both recurrent nervures. Tibia? and tarsi of all the legs 

 spinose ; anterior femora in S emarginate on the underside at 

 base ; anterior tarsi ( $ ) with a prominent, long, soft fringe of spines 

 on the outer side ; intermediate tibiaj with one apical spur. 



Nothing much is known about the habits of the insects belonging 

 to this genus, but they are probably similar to those of Tachytes. 



