- os ee eee 
a new Genus of Infecds. ¥Q7 
genera in the clafs, which are now very much confufed. This 
perfuafion is the refult of an examination of what Fabricius terms 
the inftrumenta cibaria, in order to fix-upon an effential charaéter, 
more determinate than the prefent, for the genus 4s. I found 
that the tongue was of one form in Sphex, of another in Vé/pa, and 
of another ftill in Apis. Amongtt the infects-which I diffected with 
this view, was the Sphew fabulofa of Linneus; and I was not a little 
furprifed to find that it was furnifhed with an inflexed rofrum (d),. 
which concealed a long, retraétile, tubular tongue, with a bifid clava 
at its end(e): whereas the tongue of true Spheges, fuch at leaft 
as 1 have examined, is very fhort, flat, dilated, and nearly entire at 
the apex (f). . It agreed with the tongue of Ve/pa, in being di- 
vided at the end; but in this latter genus, that part is extremely 
fhort and broad, obcordate, very deeply bifid, having its lobes 
fometimes tipped with a fmall callous point(g). It had a ftill 
ftronger affinity with that member in fv, efpecially in thofe 
Spocies that have an: inflexed ro/frum(4), but in thefe the tongue is 
entire, and ufually acute. In many other circumftances this infeé& 
differs from all thofe genera, as will appear when I give its natural 
character. 
The poffeffion of three other Britifh fpecies, which agree with 
this in-the peculiar form of the re/frum and maxille, as well as in habit 
and other circumftances, makes my hefitation the lefs-to confiderthem 
-as diftinét from the genus Sphex, and more’ particularly as Lin- 
nus has placed.an infeét exhibiting the fame characters eek 
his pes, under. the name of Apis Ichneumonea. This will appear, I 
(d) Tab. XIX. No. I. figs.g. as (e) fig. 3 (f) Tab. XIX. No. Il. fig. 2;. | 
(g) Tab. XIX. No. IIL fig. 2. Seealfo Reaumzwr, brains V. Tab. 16. fig. 2.and De Geer, , 
Tom. II. Partie II. Tab, 26. fig. 10, 11. 
{h), Tab. XIX. No. TV. fig. 2.. 
think, 
