270 SPHEGID^, 



with silvery pubescence : the apical joint of the antennae rufo- 

 testaceous ; tlie head and thorax rugose ; the posterior angles of 

 the rcetathorax covered with silvery pubescence ; the wings fusco- 

 hyaline. The base of the abdomen covered with silvery pile ; at 

 the lateral apical margins of the basal four segments an elongate 

 subovate yellowish-wdiite macula, each in succession smaller than 

 on the basal segment, sometimes a minute one on the 5th segment ; 

 the lateral apical margins of the 6th and 7th segments produced 

 into acute spines, the apical margin of the 7th rounded. 

 " Hah. India (coll. W. W. Saunders)." 



Genus HELIORYCTES. 



Helioryctes, Smith, Cat. iv, p. 358. 



Type, H. inelanopyrus., Smith. 



Range. Africa (West Coast) ; India; Burma. 



"Head transverse, about the width of the thorax ; eyes oval, con- 

 verging at the vertex ; the stemmata placed in a triangle towards 

 the vertex ; autennse short, subfiliform, 

 slightly thickened in the middle, pointed 

 at the apex ; the scape short, thick, and 

 cylindrical ; the first joint of the flagellum 

 short, about half the length of the second, 

 the rest of about equal length ; mandi- 

 bles toothed within, with a dentate pro- 



,, ,. , ^S /'■.,. p. , cess beneath towards the base; the 

 Heiiorijctes assimuis, x-'i- ■, , i i mi ^ i / ^i 



labrum concealed. Thorax rotundate, the 



collar narrow, transverse ; the scutellum transverse, oblong- 

 quadrate ; the metathorax truncated, with a mucro at the sides 

 and about the middle of the truncation ; the superior wings 

 with one marginal (radial) and three submarginal (cubital) 

 cells ; the marginal cell elongate, rounded at the apex, slightly 

 appendiculate ; the first submarginal cell elongate, twice the 

 length of the second and third united ; the second submarginal 

 cell petiolated ; the third oblique, of nearly equal width ; the 

 first recurrent nervure received by the first submarginal cell 

 near its apex ; the second recurrent nervure entering the second 

 submarginal cell near its apex ; the legs stout ; the anterior 

 tarsi ciliated outside, the intermediate and posterior tibiae spinose ; 

 the claws simple, having a pulvillus in their fork. Abdomen ovato- 

 conic, truncated at the base, the apex acute." — Smith. 



To Mr. Smith's accurate and full description I have to add an 

 important particular — a detail of character which seems to have 

 been overlooked. The posterior coxie are armed at their apex., in 

 both 2 ff''*^'^ c? , with a long acute spine pointing hacTcwards. In the 

 type of the genus, the posterior coxa of which is figured above, 

 this is very prominent; but in the Indian species described below 

 the spine is reduced to an obscure tubercle on the underside of 

 the coxa. 



H. melanopyrus, on which this genus was founded, is from the 



