394 Major C. G. Nurse on new 



short during the last few years, and tlie district lias con- 

 sequently suffered to a considerable extent from famine. The 

 best months for collecting Hymenoptera are March and 

 April, and again in September and October; but there is no 

 month in the year when a certain number of species cannot 

 be obtained, and some specimens occurred during the cold 

 weather which I never saw at any other time. 



I had previously collected at Deesa and elsewhere for 

 about three years, and new species from my collections have 

 already been described by Lt.-Col. Bingham in the Journal 

 of the"^ Bombay Natural History Society, by Mr, Cameron in 

 the same Journal and in various other papers, some of which 

 are still in course of publication, and by myself in the 

 Journals of the Bombay Natural History Society and of tiie 

 Asiatic Society. 



In the present paper I have included descriptions or 

 remarks on a few species already known, in cases where only 

 one sex has hitherto been described, or wiiere the descriptions 

 published appear to require amplification. My collection 

 contains, in addition to the species now described, and those 

 enumerated in the papers mentioned above, a number of 

 species which I have set aside as possibly new, but which 

 require comparing with types, and also several which pro- 

 bably belong to new genera. These I liave reserved for 

 further study. The number of new species already obtained 

 from a single locality so apparently unpromising as Deesa 

 renders it highly probable that when the bees and wasps of 

 India are more fully known, the number of species will con- 

 siderably exceed the estimate of 2000 made by Bingham 

 and others, although doubtless many so-called species will 

 disappear as varieties as further material becomes available. 



Mutilla Philippa, sp. n. 



f^ . Head and abdomen finely and shallowly, but not very 

 closely, thorax somewhat more deeply punctured ; antennae 

 rather shorter than the head and thorax united, third and fourth 

 joints of the flagellum subequal ; head somewhat narrower 

 than thorax, eyes slightly emarginate, the vertex shining ; 

 mesonotum with two parallel longitudinal furrows from base 

 to apex ; median segment coarsely reticulate, widened and 

 rounded posteriorly, with a wedge-shaped groove, widest 

 above, bounded by carinae ; abdomen with the basal segment 

 very small, with a ventral keel, which has a slight curve, 

 and is dentate at apex. Head, thorax, and first abdominal 

 segment black, remainder of abdomen light, shining, red; 



