OXYBELUS. 161 



of the cheeks also with silvery pubescence ; the mandibles fer- 

 ruginous at their apex, and with an obtuse tooth at their base. 

 Thorax : the tubercles, tegulae in front, the tibiae and tarsi 

 yellow ; the extreme apex of the femora yellow ; the anterior 

 and intermediate tibiae with a longitudinal stain beneath, the 

 posterior pair black except at their base ; the intermediate and 

 posterior tarsi rufo-fuscous, the anterior pair slightly ferru- 

 ginous ; the enclosed space at the base of the metathorax 

 smooth and shining ; the posterior portion only slightly punc- 

 tured, the lateral margins rounded. Abdomen short, ovato- 

 canical, covered with griseous pubescence ; the apical margins 

 of the segments narrowly piceous, the apical segment ferru- 

 ginous and coarsely punctured. 



Male. Length 2-2} lines. — Black ; the mandibles at their base, 

 and the scape, yellow ; the latter sometimes with a dark stain 

 behind ; the legs more yellow than in the other sex. 



This species is not uncommon. I have taken it entering its 

 burrows in a hard sand-bank ; it had formed quite a small 

 colony; the females were conveying species of Halticce into 

 their burrows. 



Genus 3. OXYBELUS. 



Vespa, pt., Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 948 (1 766). 

 Apis et Nomada, pt., Fabr. Mant. i. (1787). 

 Crabro, pt., Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 293 (1793). 

 Oxybelus, Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. (1805). 



Head transverse, as wide as the thorax ; eyes lateral and ovate ; 

 ocelli in an obtuse angle on the vertex ; antennae short, arcuate 

 and filiform, inserted at the base of the clypeus; the clypeus 

 transverse. Thorax rotundate ; the collar transverse ; the scu- 

 tellum transverse, lunulate and having on each side of its pos- 

 terior margin an incurved squama; the metathorax truncated, 

 with a curved spine in the middle of its base ; the anterior wings 

 with one marginal cell slightly appendiculated at its apex, and 

 one complete submarginal cell separated from the second dis- 

 coidal cell by a faintly-traced nervure and receiving the recur- 

 rent nervure at one-third distance from its apex ; the legs stout, 

 the anterior tarsi ciliated, the intermediate and posterior tibiae 

 spinose, the claws bifid with a large pulvillus between their fork. 

 Abdomen ovato-conic, subtruncate at the base. 



