SAPYGA. 49 



Tiphia minuta, St. Farg. Hym. hi. 558. 9. 

 Nyland. Ap. Boreal. 24. 3. 

 Wesm. Hym. Foss. Belg. 23. 2. 



Female. Length 2-3 lines. — Black and shining, with scattered 

 punctures ; antenna? rufo-piceous beneath ; mandibles rufescent 

 in the middle. Thorax : wings fusco-hyaline, the stigma large 

 and black, the nervures piceous ; the joints of the legs and the 

 tarsi rufo-pieeous, the latter densely ciliated ; the posterior 

 tibiae strongly serrated exteriorly ; the metathorax with three 

 longitudinal elevated parallel lines, all extending from its base 

 to the verge of the truncation. Abdomen densely pubescent, 

 the apical segment rufo-piceous. 



Male. Length 2-3 lines. — Only differs from the female in 

 having the antennae and mandibles entirely black, and the tarsi 

 redder. 



The neuration of the anterior wings is frequently incomplete ; 

 the first transverso-cubital nervure is often obsolete on one or 

 both wings. 



This is a rare species, but is occasionally taken near London ; 

 it has occurred at Hampstead Heath, Southgate, and Colney 

 Hatch ; it has also been taken near Bristol, at Glanville's Woot- 

 ton, Dorset, and at Braunton Burrows, Devon. 



Fam. 2. Sapygidse, Leach. 



The legs without spines; the antennae elongate, as long as 

 the head and thorax, usually clavate or subclavate; the eyes 

 emarginate. 



Genus 1. SAPYGA. 



Apis, pt., Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 953 (1766). 

 Scolia, pt., Fabr. Syst.Ent. 355 (1775). 

 Sirex, pt., Fabr. Mant. i. 257 (1787). 

 Sapyga, Latr. Precis, p. 134 (1769). 

 Masaris, pt., Panz. Faun. Germ. fasc. 47 (1801). 

 Hellus, pt., Fabr. Syst. Piez. 246 (1804). 



Head a little wider than the thorax, subrotund ; eyes emar- 

 ginate ; stemmata in a triangle on the vertex ; antennae as long 

 as the head and thorax, subclavate ; labrum minute ; mandibles 

 stout and dentate. Thorax subcylindrical, truncated anteriorly, 

 rounded posteriorly ; the collar extending laterally to the tegulae ; 



