Hymenoptera aculeata collected in Algeria: the Sphegidae. 109 
yellow abdominal fasciae, but they are not nearly so 
noticeable as in the insects now under consideration.) 
1 ¢. Biskra, 6. vi, 98. F. D. M. 
(2.19. Biskra, 8. vit, 97. A. E. E. Vide above.) 
Nysson BRAUERI, Handl. 
1 2. Le Tarf, on Foeniculum vulgare, 26. vii, 96. A. E. E. 
1 f,2 29. Biskra, on Ammi visnaga, 23. v—19. vi, 97. 
E. E. 
‘1 ft Biskra, 27. v, 98. F.D. M. 
I cannot find any records of the capture of this insect 
since it was described by Handlirsch from a single $ (taken 
at Sétif, Province of Oran) in the Vienna Museum. My 
specimen was determined by Kohl. 
The ? is therefore, I suppose, undescribed. As might 
be expected, its structural characters (like those of the 2) 
connect it closely with scalaris. The antennae, however, 
and also the scutellum with the adjoining posterior corners 
of the mesonotum, and the apex of the pygidial area are 
fulvous or yellowish (not black); and the latter area 
appears somewhat more strongly and regularly punctured. 
The silvery tomentum, characteristic of many desert 
species, is very conspicuous in these insects. The carinated 
frontal tubercle seems to me to be quite identical in the 
two forms. In fact, I can see nothing except colour and 
pubescence-characters to distinguish them, 
NyYSSON EPEOLIFORMIS, var. DITIOR, var. nov. 
I am not sure but that this form has as good a claim 
as brauert to be described as a distinct species. It ditfers 
from typical epeoliformis very much as brauert from 
scalaris. The antennae are not infuscated except at their 
extreme apices. The whole pronotum, nearly the whole 
of the mesopleurae, the whole scutellum and postscutellum, 
and a great part of the propodeal spines are yellow, and 
the abdomen is principally of that colour, none of the 
fasciae being interrupted, and only those of segments 2 
and 3 being incised (triangularly) at their bases. Its 
puncturation and rugulosities (propodeal, ete.) appear 
weaker and shallower than in epeoliformis ~ f from 
Albania; but the difference is slight, and in all main 
points of structure it agrees with the latter so exactly 
that I cannot convince myself of its specific distinctness. 
