AMMOPHILA LUTARIA. 83 



This is a very abundant species, frequenting most sandy situ- 

 ations. I have frequently found, in digging in sand-banks, as 

 many as twenty females, apparently hybernating together until 

 suitable weather enabled them to pursue their usual economy. 



3. Ammophila lutaria. 



A. nigra ; metathorace transverse seu oblique striato, abdominis 

 basi rufo. 



Sphex lutaria, Fabr. Mant. i. 273. 3 ; Ent. Syst. ii. 199. 3 $ . 



Fitters, Ent.iii.22b. 17. 

 Pepsis lutaria, Fabr. St/st. Piez. 208. 2. 

 Ammophila affinis, Kirby, Trans. Linn. Soc. iv. 195. 2 $ . 



Van d. Lind. Obs. i. 87. 5. 



Shuck. Foss. Hym. 78. 3. 



St. Farg. Hym. iii. 369. 8. 



Lucas, Explo. Sc. Alger. iii. 274. 

 Psammophila affinis, Dahlb. Hym. Europ. i. 16. 11. 



Wesm. Hym. Foss. Bely. 70. 2. 



Female. Length 9-10 lines. Black ; the head and thorax 

 punctured and pubescent ; the disk of the thorax shining ; the 

 mesothorax with a deeply impressed line at its base, extending 

 to the middle of its disk ; the metathorax above transversely 

 striated, with an impressed longitudinal line in the middle, ter- 

 minating in a fossulet at the verge of the truncation ; the wings 

 hyaline, their apical margins slightly clouded ; the anterior tarsi 

 strongly ciliated, and all the tibiae spinose. Abdomen : the 

 petiole and base of the first segment black, the posterior portion 

 and the second and third segments ferruginous, the apical 

 margin of the third usually black. 



Male. Differs in having the face covered with a dense silvery 

 pubescence ; the abdomen has a bright silky white pile, and the 

 legs have a thin changeable pile ; the basal segment is some- 

 times entirely black ; the abdomen clavate. 



This is a very local insect : it occurs sparingly at Southend in 

 August and September ; I found it, however, plentifully on the 

 sands at Deal. It has also been taken at Littlehampton, Sussex, 

 and on the coast of Hampshire. It appears to prefer sandy spots 

 near the sea. It has not occurred in the north of England. At 

 Lowestoft, Suffolk, it is very plentiful. 



