Hymenoptera aculeata collected in Algeria: the Sphegidae. 117 
only the abdominal fasciae appear wider, through being 
much less widely and deeply bi-excised in front. (This 
makes the two sexes superficially more similar than in 
other related species (peregrinus, gazagnairer) where the ¢ 
is generally a more brightly-coloured insect than the 9.) 
(Mr. Saunders’s MS. alludes to another ? “ Near Médéa, 
alt. about 3180 ft., burrowing in sandy soil about 1 p.m. 
15. vii, 93, A. E. E.,” but I cannot find this specimen in 
his collection, and do not know what has become of it.) 
STIZUS GAZAGNAIREI, Handl. (?) 
1 2. Constantine, 15. vi, 98, F. D. M. 
I am somewhat doubtful about this determination, 
partly because of the date of the capture, and partly 
because the specimen is a little (but only a very little) 
more highly coloured than any of a series of 2 2 before 
me which are certainly gazaynairei, taken by myself-with 
their males at Hamman Bou Hadjar (Province of Oran) in 
April, before any other Stizus had appeared. In this 
specimen the clypeus is entirely yellow, and the legs show 
no black markings between the extreme bases of the 
femora and the unguiculi, while in all the Oran 2 ? the 
former has a black central spot at its base, and the latter 
vary considerably in the extent of their infuscation but 
are never quite immaculate. Still I do not know what 
else it can possibly be, and its abdominal fasciae are 
abbreviated at their sides, and that on segm. 5 reduced to 
a mere central spot, exactly as in normal gazagnairei. It 
seems not impossible that the brighter coloration of the 
Constantine specimen may be a consequence of its appear- 
ance at a later date, or to some climatic difference between 
East and West Algeria; but it is perhaps rash to theorise 
about a single specimen which may after all belong to 
some distinct but cognate species. Several forms of this 
Group and those near to it have their f f abundantly 
distinct, but their 2 2 almost indeterminable when they 
occur in isolated specimens apart from the other sex; (cf. 
Handlirsch’s Synoptic Tables of the 2 2 passim !) 
STIZUS ZIBANENSIS, 0. sp. 
In Mr. Saunders’s MS. these specimens are listed as 
meridionalis, Costa, but that species is not otherwise 
represented in his collection, and though its description 
