POMPILUS GIBBUS. 55 



Pompilus fuscus, Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 280. 1. 



Schibdte, Mon. Pomp. Krby. Tidsskr. i. 339. 8. 

 Ratz. Forst. Ins. Bd. iii. 34. 14. 

 Smith, Cat. Brit. Hym. 13. 12. 



Female. Length 5-7 lines. — Black, slightly shining; the head 

 and mandibles sprinkled with long black hairs, the anterior 

 margin of the clypeus rounded. Thorax : the prothorax with 

 a few long black hairs; the metathorax short, convex, and 

 truncated posteriorly, and with a central slightly impressed 

 line at its base ; the wings fusco-hyaline, with a broad black 

 marginal band ; the third submarginal cell usually triangular, 

 with the outer nervure arched, sometimes petiolated ; the an- 

 terior tarsi ciliated ; the intermediate and posterior tibiae with 

 a double row of spines, which are continued to the apex of the 

 first joint of the tarsi. Abdomen with the three basal segments 

 ferruginous, a black band on the apical margins of the second 

 and third, that on the first piceous. 



The Male only differs in being more slender and smaller, in 

 having silvery pubescence on the face, and sericeous pubescence 

 on the metathorax and coxae ; the legs are less spinose, the an- 

 terior tarsi not ciliated; the fifth and sixth ventral segments 

 emarginate, the sixth most strongly so, and with a deep fossulet 

 on each side of the emargination ; the seventh has a longitu- 

 dinal carina at its base, and its apex truncated. 



There cannot be a doubt of this being the S. fusca of Linnaeus 

 when we study the description in the ' Fauna Suecica,' and bear 

 in mind that the typical specimen in the Linnaean Cabinet has 

 the name "fusca " in the hand-writing of Linnaeus attached to 

 the specimen, and which the description suits much better than 

 S. viatica. 



This species is found in all parts of the United Kingdom : it 

 stores up spiders for the food of its young brood. 



2. Pompilus gibbus. 



P. niger ; abdomine ferrugineo, apice nigro ; metathorace sub- 



tiliter punctato ; alis anticis apicibus nigris. Mas et Faun. 



Sphex gibba, Fabr. Syst. Ent. 350. 23 ; Ent. Syst. ii. 212. 59 $ . 



Rossi, Faun. Etrus. ii. 63. 816. 

 Pompilus gibbus, Fabr. Ent. Syst. Suppl. 249. 17 ; Syst. Piez. 193. 

 27. 



Panz. Faun. Germ. 77. 13 ; Krit. Revis. ii. 119. 



St. Farg. Sf Serv. Encycl. Meth. x. 179. 2. 



Van d. Lind. Obs. i. 338. 35 $ ? . 



Shuck. Foss. Hym. 62. 13. 



