128 



CRABRO I'ROXIMUS. 



rufo-piceous ; the calcaria testaceous. Abdomen subclavate, 

 smooth and shining ; the sides and fifth segment with a fine 

 silky white pubescence; the apical segment obscurely ferrugi- 

 nous, punctured, carinate at the sides. 



The Male differs in having the mandibles and palpi yellow, 

 sometimes pale, scarcely yellow, and the scape sometimes 

 slightly yellow at the sides; the anterior and intermediate 

 femora, as well as the anterior tibiae, yellow in front; the 

 enclosed portion of the metathorax obliquely striated, and the 

 margin of the two basal segments of the abdomen constricted. 



This species is plentiful in the London district ; it frequently 

 burrows into the mortar of old brick-walls; it provisions it's 

 nest with the Rose-Aphis. I took both sexes in their nests, the 

 species being abundant in my own garden. The female is un- 

 doubtedly the C. hyulinus of Shuckard, the type of which is in 

 the British Museum. 



6. Crabro proximns. 

 C. niger, elongatus ; metathorace antice oblique striato ; man- 

 dibulis testaceis ; tibiis (quatuor anticis extus nigris) tarsisque 

 Mavis. Mas. 



Crabro proxinius, Shuci: Foss. Hym. 156. 18. 



Smith, Cat. Brit. Hym. 29. 20. 

 Crabro elongatulus, Dahlb. Hym. Europ. i. 316. var. *.<?£. 



Male. Length 2^ lines.— Black ; head and thorax punctured 

 and shining ; an oblique smooth depression on each side of the 

 posterior stemmata, and a longitudinal impression between 

 them, extending just beyond; another in front reaching the 

 face, which is canaliculated ; the scape yellow in front, the 

 clavolet fimbriated beneath ; the inner orbits of the eyes and 

 the clypeus covered with a dense silvery pubescence ; the man- 

 dibles testaceous in the middle, with their apex rufescent. 

 Thorax : the mesothorax with two central parallel obsolete 

 earinae, extending to the disk ; the metathorax with a consute 

 cruciform incisure, its anterior portion obliquely striate, the 

 posterior transversely so ; a minute spot on each side of the 

 collar, and the tubercles, yellow ; the wings hyaline and irides- 

 cent, the nervures and tegulae testaceous ; the" legs yellow, with 

 the anterior femora behind, and the intermediate and posterior 

 ones with a litura at their apex beneath, and the posterior ones, 

 excepting a ring at their base, black ; the tarsi, with their 

 apical joints, rufo-piceous ; the posterior ones, with the basal 

 joint, and the base of the second only, yellow, the rest piceous. 



