SPHEGin.E. 137 



diblcs, palpij anterior fumora and tibite in front yellow, 

 legs otherwise black. 



? with the legs much darker than in Wesmaeli , the 

 tibifE of the intermediate and posterior pairs pale only at 

 the extreme base ; the puncturation of the mesonotum is 

 closer and finer and its surface duller, and the propodeal 

 area is finely diagonally striate near the lateral margins. 



L. 5-6 mm. 



Common and generally distributed. 



(SuBG. HOPLOCRABRO.) 



C. quadri-maculatus, BUh. (geniculahis, Shuck). — 

 This species may be known at once by its cheeks beneath 

 having their occipital margin raised and produced into a 

 sharp spine anteriorly ; head and thorax black, the man- 

 dibles piceous, clypeus in the male with six teeth, antennas 

 in the c? with the apical joint truncate and somewhat 

 wedge-shaped, the flagellum pilose beneath, simple in the ? , 

 pronotum often with two yellow spots, and the post-scutel- 

 lum sometimes, more or less yellow, mesonotum punctured, 

 shining in the (J, propodeum with its basal area shining, 

 surrounded and divided centrally by crenatures ; abdomen 

 varying in colour from entirely black, to black, with two 

 lateral yellow spots or transverse bands on the first to the 

 fourth segments, the fifth entirely yellow ; every variation 

 between these extremes occurs ; the <S has rarely more 

 than the second and third segments spotted, and the black 

 varieties are generally of this sex ; I have only once seen a 

 black $ ; apical dorsal valve in the ? flat, with a few 

 large punctures ; femora black, anterior and intermediate 

 pair in the <J yellow in front, tibiaa yellow, black pos- 

 teriorly, posterior pair also black in front, leaving only the 

 base pale, spinose in the ? . 



L. 8-10 mm. 



Common ; burrows in rotten wood, &c. 



Smith says it provisions its nest with small Bipicra. 



