248 INSECTA. 



usually have a very large head, almost square', when viewed from 

 above, and their antennse frequently largest at the extremity or cla- 

 vate, have an abdomen either oval or elliptical, and widest in the 

 middle, or narrowed at base into an elongated pedicle, and as if ter- 

 minated by a club. 



In some, the antennae are inserted below the middle of the anterior 

 face of the head ; the clypeus is short and Avide. 



Sometimes the eyes are emarginated. 



Trypoxylon, Lat.^ Fab. — Apius, Jur. — Sphex, Lin., 

 Where the mandibles arc arcuated and dentated. The superior 

 wings have but two closed cubital cells, each receiving a recurrent 

 nervure; the second cell is small and less distinctly marked, as well 

 as a third, that which is incomplete and almost reaches the tip of the 

 wing. The abdomen is narrowed at base into a long pedicle. 



T. Jig III us ; Sphex figulus, L.; Jur., Hymenop., IX, 6 — 8. 

 Black and glossy; the clypeus covered with a silvery, silken 

 down. The female takes advantage of the holes excavated in 

 old wood by other Insects, and deposits her eggs there, along 

 with the little spiders destined to nourish her larvpe. This done, 

 she closes the orifice with moist earth ='■. 

 Sometimes the eyes are entire. 



Here, the mandibles are narrow and merely dentated at the extre- 

 mity, or terminate in a simple point, with a single tooth beneath or 

 on the inner side. The antennae are approximated at base. 



GoRYTEs Lat. — Arpactus, Jur. — Mellinus, Oxybelus, Fab., 

 Where there are three complete, sessile and almost equal cubital cells, 

 of which the second receives the two recurrent nervures. The man- 

 dibles are moderate and unidentated on the inner side ; the antennse 

 are rather thickest near the extremity. The metathorax presents a 

 kind of false, svilcated or waived scutellum. The anterior tarsi are 

 frequently ciliated, and have the last joint inflated f. In 



Crabro, Fab., 

 There is but a single closed cubital cell, and it receives the first re- 

 current nervure ; the mandibles terminate in a bifid point. The 

 antennae are geniculate and filiform, fusiform or slightly serrated in 

 some. Their palpi are short and almost equal; the ligula is entire. 

 The clypeus is frequently golden or silvery, and very brilliant. 



Some males are remarkable for the palette or trowel-like dilatation 

 (even resembling a sieve) of the tibiae, or of the first joint of their 

 anterior feet. 



The female of one species — cibarius — provisions her larvae with a 

 Pyralis that lives on the Oak. Those of others feed them with Dip- 

 tera, which they amass in the holes Avhere they lay their eggs |. 



Stigmus, Jur., 

 These Insects are thus named from the largeness of the thick or 



* Lat., Gen. Crust, et Insect., IV, 75. 

 t Lat., Ibid., 88. 

 1 Lat., Ibid,, 80. 



