136 



CRABRO WESMAELI. 



14. Crabro Wesmaeli. 

 C. niger ; thorace flavo-maculato, metathorace laevi. 



Crabro Wesmaeli, Fan d. Lind. Obs. ii. 63. 26. 



Shuck. Foss. Hym. 164. 24. 



Dahlb. Hym. Europ. i. 312. 192. 



Wesm. Hym. Foss. Belg. 137. 17. 



Crossocerus Wesmaeli, St. Farg. Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. iii. 783. 20 ; 

 Hym. iii. 186. 19. 



Female. Length 2-3 lines. Black ; head shining and deli- 

 cately punctured; a slight longitudinal channel between the 

 stemmata, which does not extend beyond them ; on each side 

 of them an oblique smooth depression ; an impressed line in 

 front of the anterior stemma which extends to the face, which 

 is canaliculated, smooth and shining ; the inner orbit of the 

 eyes, the lower portion of the cheeks, and the clypeus densely 

 covered with silvery pubescence, the clypeus carmated in the 

 centre ; the scape yellow beneath, its extreme apex, as well as 

 that of the pedicel, ferruginous ; the mandibles testaceous or 

 yellow in the middle, with their apex ferruginous. Thorax 

 shining and delicately punctured ; the metathorax with a con- 

 sute cruciform incisure, the transverse one curving upwards 

 and enclosing a smooth shining space , the posterior portion 

 with minute scattered punctures ; the collar with a transverse 

 band, sometimes interrupted, the tubercles, extreme base of 

 the wings, and a spot on the scutellum, yellow ; the wings hya- 

 line and iridescent, their nervures piceous, the tegulae rufo- 

 piceous ; the tibiae yellow, the anterior and intermediate pair 

 black beneath, as well as the apical half of the posterior pair ; 

 the tarsi rufo-testaceous, with their base more or less yellow ; 

 the anterior pair ciliated exteriorty, and all the tibiae spinose. 

 Abdomen elongate-ovate, the basal segment narrowed into a 

 petiole ; the apical segment coarsely punctured, the tip ferrugi- 

 nous ; the sides of the abdomen and the fifth segment finely 

 pubescent. 



The Male differs in having the antennae and mandibles black ; 

 iii sometimes wanting the yellow spots on the collar ; the abdo- 

 men being more elongate, arid not ferruginous at the apex. 



This species is occasionally met with in the London district, 

 but is apparently much more abundant in the North ; I captured 

 it in Yorkshire in the month of July, and on one occasion ob- 

 served it at Charlton near Greenwich, burrowing in a bank of 

 fine sand, furnishing its nest with minute species of Diptera be- 

 longing to the genera Phytomyza and Notiphila : I found it very 

 abundant at Pakefield, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, in August 1859. 



