Records of Dees, 63 



abrlomen ; from -S. nitidissimuSy Ckll., by the sculpture of the 

 metiithorax. 



Sphecodes inanni, sp. n. 



? . — Length about 7 mm. 



Not very robust ; head, thorax, antennae, and legs black, 

 the tarsi obscure rcddisli at extreme apex ; abdomen shining, 

 rather dark chestnut-red, the apical margin of the fourth 

 segment, and most of the fifth, black or nearly so, but the 

 black not sharply defined ; head and thorax conspicuously 

 hoary with short white hair ; head broad ; mandibles simple, 

 but with a slight inner angle, black, with the apical part 

 dark rufous ; labrum moderately elongated, shorter than iu 

 S. fakifer, not emarginate at apex ; the basal ])rocess of 

 labrum broad and low, coarsely pitted, its margin with 

 extremely short yellowish hairs; clypeus well punctured; 

 front extremely minutely and densely [iunctured ; mesothorax 

 minutely and very densely punctured, but shining betweeu 

 the punctures ; area of metathorax rather small, with 

 irregular confused wrinkles ; teguhe pale testaceous. Wings 

 pale greyish, stigma and nervures dark brown ; second s.m. 

 very broad. Alidomen, excei)t the hind margins of the 

 segments, conspicuously and quite closely though finely 

 punctured ; end of abdomen with white hair ; middle of 

 first segment almost free from punctures. 



Hub. Wawawai, Washington State, Sept. 6, 1908, 3 ? 

 [W. M. Mann). 



The finely punctured abdomen gives the species a rather 

 peculiar appearance. Among the described species of the 

 north-west it may be compared with S. olympicus and 

 /S. Columbia, which are much larger and very diti'erent ; or 

 with (S. washinytoni, which has the sculpture of mesothorax 

 entirely ilifferent. In the table of Maine species it runs to 

 the vicinity of S. prosphorus, which has dentate mandibles 

 and a quite dift'erent metathorax. In the New Mexico 

 table it falls near »S'. fortior, Ckll., which is no doubt its 

 nearest relative ; but fortior is larger, with the mesothorax 

 more coarsely and less closely punctured. 



In Robertson's Illinois table, owing to the characters of 

 labrum and mandibles, the species will not run anywhere, 

 though of Robertson's segregates it falls best in the genus 

 Drepanium. The combination of mandibular and labral 

 characters given for Drepanium does not hold in a series o£ 

 species ; some have simple mandibles and short labrum, 

 while the female of S. davisii, Rob., has bidentate mandibles 

 and a long labrum. 



