Hymenoptera aculeata collected in Algeria: the Sphegidae. 121 
rounded off, but ends in a very sharply-defined truncation 
the corners of which are angular or even tooth-like, 
depressed and then reflexed, with a curiously jagged or 
denticulate outline. The triangular area is large, well 
defined, and bisected by a shallow linear impression. 
The colour of the wings is the most striking of all its 
characters. At their bases they are clear hyaline up to 
the points at which the veins begin to branch and form 
“cells.” The wpper wings only are clear along a part 
of their apical margin, viz. from the apex of the radial cell 
to that of the vein which André calls “ nervure posterieure.” 
The rest of their extent is occupied by a most conspicuous 
dark fascia, with a sharp, nearly straight, interior margin. 
It is umber-brown by transmitted light, but by reflected 
light exhibits a most beautiful blue and purple iridescence, 
which contrasts quite startlingly with the clear glassy basal 
areas adjoining it. 
STIZUS GRANDIS, Lep. 
1 gf. Biskra, on Ami visnaga, 15. vi, 97, A. E. F. 
1 2. Biskra, on Ammi visnaga, 25. v, 97. A. E. E. 
STIZUS TRICOLOR, Hand. 
LO; hf. Bislera, dy ito 25. v,/98.... B.D. M. 
5 2 9. Biskra, 16. to 25. v, 98. F..D. M. 
I have little doubt that I am correct in this identifica- 
tion. Most of the ¢ f agree in every respect with Hand- 
lirsch’s description of one of the two % ¢ (from Syria and 
Cyprus) on which alone he based it, viz. that in which 
the yellow band on the 2nd abd. segment was entire. 
The rest are in all main characters exactly similar, but 
exhibit one or other of certain slight differences in colour 
which, I feel certain, are individual and not specific, 
e.g. the propodeum may show either more or less of yellow 
than in Handlirsch’s types, and in one specimen is black 
entirely; the apical abd. segment also is narrowly streaked 
with black longitudinally in one specimen, more broadly 
so in another, and in two black altogether. 
The 22 were taken along with them, and evidently 
belong to them. All the specimens (ff and 2? 9) have 
the basal segment of the abdomen distinctly red, and the 
yellow bands on the following segments uninterrupted 
and exceedingly broad. In the 2? the yellow markings on 
