HYMBNOPTERA. 243 



longer than those of the Pompili, and the mandibles present no den- 

 tations *. 



Planiceps, Lat., Van der Lind. 

 Closely allied to Salius in the general form of the body; but the 

 head is flat and its posterior margin concave; its ocelli are very small 

 and distant, and the eyes elongated and occupying its sides. The an- 

 tennae are inserted near the anterior margin. The two anterior legs 

 are distant from the others, short, curved underneath, and have large 

 coxse and thighs. There are but two complete cubital cells in the 

 upper Avings, the second of which receives the first recurrent nervure; 

 the incomplete or terminal cell receives the other nervure at a short 

 distance from its junction with the second cell. 



A second species, besides the one on which this subgenus was 

 founded f , has been discovered in Brazil by M. de la Cordaire, 

 who was kind enough to give it to me, and whose name it will 

 bear. In 



Apobus Spin., 

 There are also but two complete cubital cells ; but the second re- 

 ceives the two recurrent nervures. The Apori, in all else, resemble 

 the true Pompili %. 



In the others the first segment of the thorax is narrowed before in 

 the form of a joint or knot, and the first ring of the abdomen, some- 

 times even a part of the second, is narrowed into an elongated pe- 

 dicle. Their superior wings always present three complete cubital 

 cells and the commencement of a fourth. 



Those in which the mandibles are dentated, the palpi filiform and 

 almost equal, the maxillae and ligula very long, in the form of a pro- 

 boscis, and bent underneath, and in Avhich the second cubital cell re- 

 ceives the two recurrent nervures, have been separated from them by 

 M. Kirby, under the generic name of 



Ammophilus, Kirby. 

 To this division belongs the 



A. subulosus; Sphex subulosa, L. ; Panz., Faun. Insest. Germ., 

 LXV, 12. Black ; abdomen bluish-black, narrowed at base into 

 a long, slender, and almost conical pedicle, the second ring, its 

 base excepted, and the third, fulvous; a silvery and silken down 

 on the front of the head in the male. 



The female, with her feet, excavates a deep hole in the 

 ground along the borders of roads, in which she deposits a 

 caterpillar, killed or mortally wounded by her sting, laying an 

 egg by the side of it ; she then closes the hole with grains of 

 sand, or even a small pebble. It would appear that she repeats 

 the operation several times in succession in a similar manner, 

 in the same nest. 



A. arenarius ; Pepsis arenaria. Fab; Panz., Ibid., LXV, 13, 



* See Fab., Lat., and Van der Linden. 



t Lat., Ibid., divis. B; Van der Linden, and Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat, article 

 Flaniceps. 



X Lat., Ibid., p. 62 ; and Van der Linden. 



