TACHYTES UNICOLOR. 89 



of its base ; the wings slightly fuscous, the nervures piceous ; 

 the anterior tarsi strongly ciliated on the outside ; the inter- 

 mediate and posterior pairs with strong spines at the apex of 

 the joints; the tibi<e with scattered spines, the apical joints of 

 the tarsi ferruginous. Abdomen : the first, second, and base 

 of the third segment ferruginous ; the margins of the segments 

 slightly depressed, obscurely covered with silvery pile, which is 

 most visible at the sides. 



|3. The three basal segments of the abdomen ferruginous. 



The Male is rather smaller ; the abdomen more elongate, and 

 with rarely more than the two basal segments ferruginous ; the 

 legs are less spinose. 



This insect is very abundant in most sandy situations ; it has 

 been taken at Southend, Deal, and in North Wales; in Sandown 

 Bay, Luccomb Chine, and Ventnor, Isle of Wight, plentifully at 

 the end of July ; it has also occurred at Yarm, in Yorkshire. Its 

 prey appears to be various : Shuckard says that he frequently 

 caught it with sandy-coloured caterpillars on Hampstead Heath ; 

 I have taken it at Weybridge with a small species of grasshop- 

 per. At page 88 of Shuckard's Essay, he has recorded the 

 capture of Larra anathema in Ireland, by Mr. Haliday, who has 

 since informed me that the insect in reality was Tachytes pom- 

 piliformis, the wrong name having inadvertently been entered 

 in his list. 



Larra anathema is omitted in this work, being in all proba- 

 bility introduced into the British fauna by mistake, as the insect, 

 I am informed, does not occur nearer than the south of France. 



2. Tachytes unicolor. 



T. ater, immaculatus ; abdominis segmentorum marginibus lu- 

 cidis. 



Larra unicolor, Panz. Faun. Germ. 106. 16. 

 Tachytes unicolor, Shuck. Foss. Hym. 90. 2. 



Dahlb. Hym. Europ. i. 129. 65. 



St. Farg. Hym. iii. 240. 1. 



Lucas, Explo. Sc. Alger, iii. 246. 



Wesm. Hym. Foss. Belg. 72. 2. 



Female. Length 4| lines. — Black ; the head closely punctured, 

 an impressed line extending from the anterior stemma to the 

 base of the antennae, and another passing backwards from the 

 tubercle which replaces the posterior stemmata to the margin 



