SPHEX FLAVIPENNIS. 85 



geau, who established the genus Coloptera for their reception; 

 the latter have only two submarginal cells in the anterior wings : 

 this genus is African. Only two species are at present known, 

 and the same number form the genus Miscus; the second species 

 is from North China. I possess a specimen of M. campestris, 

 in which the third submarginal cell is triangular, thus resem- 

 bling some varieties of A, sabulosa ; but it can only be regarded 

 as a rare occurrence. M. campestris is a very local insect, and 

 is recorded as having been taken in Dorsetshire and in the New 

 Forest ; it is not uncommon at Hawley Flat, Hants, in the 

 month of August, and at AVeybridge it is extremely abundant. 

 It provisions its nest with the larvae of Lepidoptera. 



Genus 3. SPHEX. 



Head large, transverse, as wide as the thorax ; eyes large and 

 ovate ; antennae filiform, inserted near the base of the clypeus ; 

 mandibles large and arcuate. Thorax ovate ; the prothorax 

 transverse, and constricted in front into a sort of neck ; the scu- 

 tellum transverse ; the metathorax truncated or rounded pos- 

 teriorly ; the anterior ivings with one marginal and three submar- 

 ginal cells ; the marginal cell long, narrow, and rounded at its 

 apex ; the first submarginal as long as the two following ; the 

 second oblique-quadrate, receiving the first recurrent nervure 

 towards its apex j the third forming a truncated triangle, with 

 its posterior margin usually rounded, receiving the second recur- 

 rent nervure in the middle ; the legs moderately long and stout ; 

 the anterior tarsi of the females ciliated, tbe intermediate and 

 posterior tibiae spinose. Abdomen ovate-conical, petiolated, the 

 petiole formed of the basal half of the first segment. 



1. Sphex flavipennis. 



S. nigra; fronte aurea, abdomine rufo, petiolo apiceque atris, 

 tarsis ferrugineis. 



Sphex flavipennis, Falr.Ent. Syst. ii. 201. 10. 



Latr. Hist. Nat. Ins. xiii. 293. 3. 



Jurine, Hym. t. 29. t. 8. gen. 5. 



Van d. Lind. Obs. i. 94. 1. 



Shuck. Foss. Hym. 83. 1. 



St. Fary. Hym. iii 349. 23. 



Steph. Illustr. Aland, vii. Supp. 14. t. 41. f. 3. 

 Pepsis flavipennis, Fair. Syst. Piez. 210. 13. 



