100 NYSSONIDE. 
+44 This genus was established by Latreille, in 1796, in 
his ‘‘ Précis,” and was subsequently adopted by all Ento- 
mologists, excepting Fabricius, who, to prove the stability 
of his characters, shifted the species to and fro from Crabro 
to Oxybelus and Pompilus. 
Spr. 1. sprnosus. Fab. 
niger, antennis prope thoracis longitudinem, abdomine fasciis 
tribus flavis. 
length 44—5} lines. 
Latr. Hist. 13. 305; Nouv. Dict. 23. 160; Oliv. Ency Méth. 8. 408 ; 
V. d. Lind. pt. 2.30. 
Crabro spinosus. Fab. S. E. 373. 2; E. $.2.293; Piez. 307; Rossi, 
Mant. 1. 139. 308 ; Panz. 62. 15. 
Sphex spinosa. Villers, 3. 246. 71. 
Mellinus interruptus. Panz. 72. 13. 
Black: head coarsely punctured, pubescent; apex of the 
mandibles red; antennz black, about as long as the thorax. 
Thorax punctured, pubescent; collar having a transverse 
yellow band; scutellum longitudinally striate; metathorax 
rugose ; tegule black; wings fuscous, with a somewhat deeper 
cloud over the marginal cell and exterior edge, nervures 
piceous ; legs black, entirely simple, with the apex of the femorz, 
the tibize, with the exception of a black ring around the anterior 
and intermediate pairs, (sometimes obsolete,) and all the tarsi, 
red. 
The abdomen delicately granulated, the first segment deeply 
punctulate and having an interrupted (sometimes not) yellow 
fascia towards its margin, a continuous yellow band, attenuated 
about the centre, near the margins of the two following segments, 
and the margins themselves piceous. 
The ¢ differs in having the clypeus covered with a dense silvery 
pubescence, as well as the whole of the underside of the meso- 
thorax and the coxz; the collar sometimes without the yellow 
band, the tibize with more black, the posterior pair having also 
a black ring, and sometimes the knees only red, and all the 
abdominal bands sometimes interrupted. 
& @ in most Cabinets. 
“een haree 
