3 



REMOTE STORAGE 



A REVISION OF THE BEMBICINE WASPS OF AMERICA 

 NORTH OF MEXICO. 



By John Bernard Parker, 



Associate Professor of Biology, Catholic University of America. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This revision is based upon a careful study of the collection of 

 Bembicine wasps found in the United States National Museum and 

 of collections in possession of the institutions mentioned below. 

 The writer has also examined the types found in the collections of the 

 American Entomological Society of Philadelphia and of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. Although this work was undertaken 

 as a taxonomic revision of the tribe for North America north of 

 Mexico, it has been thought proper to include a very brief summary 

 of what has been done by other investigators on the biology of 

 several species of these wasps and also to add the results of the 

 writer's own observations. 



The Bembicini is a tribe of solitary wasps belonging to the group 

 Fossores or digger wasps. This tribe and the Stizini compose the 

 family Bembicidae. Among these wasps the individuals are either 

 male or female, and the latter constructs her nest alone and pro- 

 vides for her offspring. These nests are burrows digged in the 

 ground, usually in sandy places, and, although each female con- 

 structs a burrow for herself, the wasps generally nest in colonies, 

 which may be made up of several species. The most prominent 

 characters distinguishing the Bembicine wasps are the non-folded 

 wings lying flat on the back, the three closed cubital cells of the 

 anterior wing, of which cells the second receives both discoidal cross 

 veins, the absence of a prepectus, the prominently exserted labrum, 

 and the lack of developed ocelli. 



The descriptions, both specific and generic, are based upon a study 

 of the specimens at hand. The original descriptions of all previously 

 described species have been carefully studied and the identification 

 of specimens at hand based thereon. In describing new species the 

 type-specimen, whether male or female, is described first, and con- 

 sequently the description is that of a single individual. This is 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 52— No. 2173. 

 65008°— Proc.N.M.vol.52— 17 1 



