Hymenoptera aculeata collected in Algeria: the Sphegidae. 113 
Athamantha sicula...in an old quarry,” 31. v, 95, 
A. E. E. 
1 & Bone, 23. v, 96. A. E. EB. 
None of these males have the antennae simply black 
except the yellow scape (cf. Handlirsch Mon.), but quite 
fulvous beneath and nearly so above until the last 3 or 4 
joints, which ave black practically. (On this account Mr. 
Saunders’s. MS. queries them as “ pleuripunctatus?”. But 
I have similar ¢¢ determined by Kohl and Schmiede- 
knecht, and the character seems to vary indefinitely in 
different specimens.) In one specimen only the sides of 
the propodeum are marked with yellow, and this is the case 
also with an Oran ¢ in my collection. 
GoRYTES (HARPACTUS) LAEVIS, Latr., var. (?) 
Lf 1 2, Biskra, 13. and 16.;iv, 97... -A.H. E. 
I give the name with a note of interrogation because I 
have reason to think that Mr. Saunders referred these speci- 
mens to pulchellus, Costa. Apart from descriptions the latter 
species is not known to me for certain. But I am quite 
convinced that the present insects are only a form (closely 
resembling in some points that described by Radoszkow- 
sky under the name morawitzi) of the widely-distributed 
and variable species to which I here assign them. 
The yellow markings are exactly as in normal laevis, 
except that the Ist abd. segment is immaculate. The 
vertex behind the eyes, the whole dorsal surface of the 
thorax, except the black middle area of the propodeum, 
and the base of the abdomen are red. 
Having compared these insects with many specimens 
of laevis from other Mediterranean countries, I find no 
character of structure or sculpture on which to separate 
them. But they are rather small (cire. 54 mm.) and differ 
from all my other specimens in having the hind tibiae and 
tarsi not fuscous but clear testaceous, segm. 1 entirely 
red, and segm. 2 mostly of that colour, but banded or 
spotted at its base with black, and with a yellowish-white 
apical fascia dilated at its sides exactly as in normal 
laevis. 
(Handlirsch, perhaps on Shuckard’s authority, makes 
laevis not only acommon Palaearctic, but even a British 
insect. This, I think, is a mistake. But its range is 
certainly very wide. It has been taken by Saunders on 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1911.—PARTI. (MAY) I 
