POMPILUS. 53 



Genus 1. POMPILUS. 



Sphex, pt., Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 941 (1766). 



Evania, pt., et Sphex, pt., Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 192 & 198 (1793). 



Pompilus, pt., Fabr. Ent. Syst. Supp. 246 (1798). 



Ceropales, pt., et Pompilus, pt., Fabr. Syst. Piez. 185 & 187 



(1804). 

 Priocnemis, Agenia, Pompilus, et Episyron, Schiodte, Mon. Pomp. 



Kroy. Tidsskr. i. 321, 324, 331 (1837). 

 Calicurgus, Anoplius, et Pompilus, St. Farg. Hym. iii. 397, 416, 



440 (1845). 



Head transverse ; eyes lateral, oblong-ovate ; stemmata placed 

 in a triangle on the vertex ; antenna? convolute in the female, se- 

 taceous, elongate, inserted in the middle of the anterior part of the 

 face, approximating at their base ; in the male differing in being 

 only slightly bent ; the labrum entirely concealed, or but very 

 slightly disclosed ; mandibles arcuate and unidentate, sometimes 

 bidentate. Thorax oblong, truncate or obtuse at the apex ; the 

 anterior wings with one marginal and three submarginal cells, 

 the first usually as long as the two following , the second receiving 

 the first recurrent nervure about the centre, the third receiving 

 the second recurrent nervure ; the posterior legs elongate, the 

 claws bifid, with a small pul villus between their fork. Abdo- 

 men ovate in the female, elongate in the male. 



The form of the cells of the wings in the different species of 

 this genus is very inconstant, in some species varying in different 

 individuals. In P. niger the third submarginal cell is, in its typical 

 form, acutely narrowed towards the marginal cell ; in many ex- 

 amples it will be found to be distinctly petiolated. P.fuscus is 

 subject to a similar variation, but not quite so extreme. P. pec- 

 t.inipes is also variable in the neuration of the anterior wings ; 

 the second transverso-cubital nervure is sometimes obsolete ; 

 when so in both wings, it has been mistaken for Spinola's genus 

 Aporus, and constitutes St. Fargeau's genus Evagethes ; some- 

 times this nervure is only obsolete on one side, as recorded by 

 Shuckaril in his remarks on P. crassicornis. In P. notatus 

 the form of a single nervure serves as an excellent specific 

 distinctive character. 



The armature or spiues on the legs of some species, and their 

 absence in others, have by some authors been regarded as cha- 

 racters of full generic value ; but we only adopt them as sub- 

 generic distinctions, indicating a difference of habit in those spe- 



