VESPID.5:. 375 



660. Alastor variolosus, n. sp. 



c? . Head, thorax, and basal three abdominal segments strongly 

 and very coarsely punctured ; clypeus transverse, its anterior 

 margin waved ; antennae iuserted rather low down, just above the 

 base of the clypeus ; pronotum truncate anteriorly, the anterior 

 lateral angles tuberculate ; median segment roundly concavo- 

 truncate posteriorly, divided by a medial longitudinal deep broad 

 furrow, the posterior angles at apex with an upcurved tubercular 

 spine; basal segment of abdomen cup-shaped, about half the 

 length of the 2nd, which is deeply constricted at base, the con- 

 striction smooth and shining ; apical four segments smooth, dull 

 and opaque. Black ; the clypeus, a line on the scape of the 

 antenua3 in front, a spot in the emargination of the eyes, a spot on 

 each side of the middle of the pronotum posteriorly, the lateral 

 angles of the postscutellum, and a narrow line on the apical 

 margins of the basal two abdominal segments, yellow ; legs varie- 

 gated with yellow and rufous ; wings hyaline, the radial cell slightly 

 f uscescent, the nervures dark testaceous ; the tegulaj very large, 

 black, smooth and shining. 



Hah. Trincomali, Ceylon. S- Length 7-^ exp.VI mm. $ un- 

 known. 



Family VESPID/E. 



i- 

 Labium short, quadrilobed, the divisions corneous at apex ; 

 labial palpi with three or four, maxillary palpi with six, sometimes 

 only five, joints. Mandibles, as a rule, short, armed with terminal 

 teeth, except in the genus Ischnogaster, which has the mandibles 

 long and not dentate ; antennae geniculate, arched, in Ischnogaster 

 subclavate, of 12 joints in the $ , 13 in the 6 ; clypeus pentagonal 

 or square, in Ischnogaster elongate ; when pentagonal or lengthened 

 ending in a point, when square, anteriorly emarginate, sometimes 

 bilobed ; eyes not always reaching down to the base of the man- 

 dibles, the inner orbits with a sinus or emargination. Thorax 

 variable, the posterior angles of the pronotum reaching back 

 to the base of the wings ; median segment always more or less 

 convex ; legs with the tibisB armed at apex \Aith two spines ; 

 claws simple *. AVings when in repose with a longitudinal fold ; 

 fore wing with one radial and two, three, or four cubital cells, the 

 2nd cuhital cell, tvitliout exception, receiving both recurrent nervures ; 

 Is^ cliscoidal cell co)isiderablg longer than the 1st suhmedial cell. 

 Abdomen variable. 



* Ischnogaster, which seems to me a link betweeu the Eumenida and Vespidce 

 both in structure and habits, Las two apical tibial spines, but the claws are uui- 

 dentate at base below. 



