a few Observations in Mimicry. 5 
Ageratum in the early morning sunshine before the sun had 
gained much heat. They then alighted with wings held 
back over the abdomen and then slightly lowered them 
downwards and outwards; but to complete the resemblance 
on the flower-heads these several species of Pseudosphex 
greatly curve their fore-wings while the hind-wing is folded 
up, so that the wings appear to be as narrow as the com- 
pletely folded wings of the Vesprdae and Humenidae. A 
further habit that was observed by Mr. Dukinfield Jones 
when with me was that in the case of Pseudosphex jonesi 
he saw that species move its abdomen in and out in 
just the way that a wasp does, especially when about to 
use its sting. The several species of this remarkable genus 
when disturbed flew off the flowers rapidly, and it was 
impossible for one to follow the flight. The several figures of 
these moths and wasps with folded wings are unfortunately 
not quite shown correctly. The artist has drawn them all to 
show the complete wings, whereas all the specimens show 
the strong curving of the fore-wing in the case of the moths 
and folding in the case of the wasps. Figs. 3 and 3a 
represent an undescribed species of Pseudosphex which I 
propose to call Pseudosphex novercida. In the Entomo- 
logist for 1911, p. 142, I described a species as P. polybia 
which by an error was the already described Pseudosphea 
noverca, Schs. 
Pseudosphex novercida, nov. 
Very close to Pseudosphex noverca, Schs., but differs in the following 
respects. It has vein 2 of the fore-wing from close to cell while 
noverca has it from long before the end. The white-edged valve on 
the underside of abdomen is followed by a white band, which is not 
present in noverca. Above, the wings are darker and more sooty in 
appearance, but the dark scaling does not extend beyond the cell 
as in noverca. In the hind-wing the cell is completely occupied with 
smooth dark scales while in the case of noverca it is only the upper 
part of the cell that is so scaled. In shape rather less rounded 
in outline with both fore- and hind-wing slightly narrower. The 
femur of the front pair of legs is black while noverca is white. 
Habitat. FERNANDEZ Prnuetro, 12. iv. 10. (W. J. Kaye), 
Castro (HZ. Dukinfield Jones). 
Fig. 2 is another new species closely allied to the common 
Sphecosoma melissa, Schs., but abundantly distinct in many 
ways. I propose calling it 
