SPHEGID.-E. 113 



head and tliorax dull, very closely punctured, vertex sub- 

 quadrate in the ? ; wings with a distinct brownish band 

 crossing the marginal, second submarginal, and third dis- 

 coidal cells in the ? , indicated by only a slight cloud in 

 the fj ; propodeum with an elongate triangular rugose basal 

 area bounded by a well-defined carina, its sides beyond the 

 enclosure diagonally rugose and clathrate, posterior angles 

 shortly spinose ; abdomen shining, distinctly punctured, 

 somewhat hairy, especially towards the apex ; posterior 

 femora with a well-defined apical spine beneath. 



L. 7-9 mm. 



Rare. Worthing; Hastings; Lyme Regis. Bristol; 

 (Wulcott). Glanvilles Wootton ; Lulworth ; {Dale). Col- 

 chester ; {Earwood). Lowestoft; (Smith). 



MELLINUS, Fab. 



Easily distinguished by a combination of characters which 

 do not exist together in any other genus ; species black, 

 shining, with yellow or whitish markings ; wings with three 

 submarginal cells, cubital nervure extending almost to the 

 apex of the wing, recurrent nervures received — one at the 

 apex of the first, the other at the base of the third sub- 

 marginal cell, propodeum short, rounded, with a central 

 basal impression ; abdomen petiolated, petiole formed of 

 both dorsal and ventral plates of the basal segment, 

 second segment nearly three times as wide at the apex as 

 the first; eighth ventral segment exposed in the J', 

 stipites of armature terminating in two overlapping and 

 membranous plates ; apical dorsal valve in the ? with a 

 distinct pygidial area ; posterior femora terminating in two 

 tooth-like processes ; tibia? spinose along their exterior 

 margin. The species burrow in sand, and provision their 

 nests with Biptera. Smith, Cat. Brit. Foss., Hym., 185s, 

 p. 113, describes the method these insects adopt to catch 

 flies. '•' This," he says, " is managed by running past the 



I 



