30 MUTILLID. 
Thorax red, deeply punctured, subpubescent, the whole disk 
shining ; the legs black, very hirsute and spinose. 
Abdomen black, very hirsute, somewhat shining, a broad band 
of griseous depressed hair upon the margin of the first, second, 
and third segments, in the two latter widely interrupted 9. 
The ¢ differs in having the head chalybeous, the collar and 
sides of the mesothorax black, as also the sides and truncation of 
the metathorax ; the dorsolum, scutellum and a transverse lunate 
spot at the base of the metathorax red; the tegule piceous ; 
the wings deeply fuscous. The abdomen chalybeous, with the 
white bands on the second and third segments merely subinter- 
rupted or only slightly interrupted. In most Cabinets. 
+44 Abundant in some places; the male is generally taken 
settling on flowers; the female stings very severely: she has 
been described to me as making a harsh stridulous noise 
when impaled alive. My friend Mr. Pickering dug a female 
out of the ground, during the last winter, at Coombe Wood, 
and mixed in the sand he had removed he found the wings 
of flies; it is therefore not improbable that the larva is fed 
upon Diptera. 
Sp. 2. catva. Vill. 
nigra, vertice thoraceque rufis, abdominis margine cinereo 9. 
hirta, nigra, abdominis segmentis margine ciliatis 3. 
length 3 lines. 
Villers, 3. 343. No. 9. Tab. 8.f.34; Fab. Ent. Syst. Suppl. 282; Piez. 
438 ; Latreille, Actes de la S. Hist. N. de Paris, p. 10. No. 8; Hist. 
13.265; Oliv. Ency. Méth. 8. 64. 56. 9. 
g M. nigrita. Panz. 80. 22; Oliv. Ency. Méth. 8. 65. 59. 
** Head black, pilose, with the vertex and occiput fulvous ; 
‘“‘ antennz dark, fulvous; beneath each there is an elevated line, 
‘“‘ which terminates at the internal angles, near their insertion, 
‘‘ with a pointed tubercle. Mandibles fulvous, their apex black. 
