JOURNAL OP ENTOMOLOGY. 



No. VI.— September 1862. 



XXIX. — Descriptions of neiv Species of Mexican Pompilidse, belong- 

 ing to the Genera Pompilus, Agenia, Priocncmis, Notocyphus, 

 and Ferreola. By Feederick Smith. 



In the tribe of fossorial Hymenoptera there is no family that contains 

 species so elegant in their forms, or that are more splendidly adorned 

 than are to be found in that of the Pompilidse. These insects have 

 an almost universal geographical range ; but it is in Mexico and 

 Brazil that the most beautiful species are found : every variety of 

 colour, combined frequently with the brilliant effulgence of gold and 

 sUver adornment, are there to be met with. The species described 

 in the present paper constitute an important addition to our know- 

 ledge of the group, as not more than six or eight species have, to 

 my knowledge, been previously described from Mexico. 



Family Pompilidae,. Zieac/j. 

 Genus Pompilus, Fabr. 



1. Pompilus marcidus. 



P. fusco-fernigineus, facie pilis argentatis omata ; alis fuscis, margiuibus 

 apicalibus subhyalinis. 



Female. Length 8 lines. Fusco-femiginous, covered with a fine 

 changeable silky pile, that on the face is silvery ; the clj^eus rounded 

 and margined anteriorly; the seven apical joints of the an tennis black; 

 the cheeks with a thin cinereous pubescence. The legs of a clearer 

 red than the thorax ; the tibiae and tarsi anned with stout spines ; the 

 extreme apex of the joints of the tarsi of the intermediate and poste- 

 rior legs black ; the wings of a dark-reddish brown, gi'adually blending 

 into a pale or subhyaline margin posteriorly. The abdomen palest at 



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