HYMENOPTERA. 21 



lum produced, and having in the middle a smooth shining tu- 

 bercle ; the metathorax rounded at the sides, covered with large 

 shallow punctures ; wings brown-black w r ith a violet iridescence ; 

 legs thinly clothed with cinereous pubescence, the scutellum has 

 a fringe of the same colour. Abdomen smooth and shining, 

 punctured at the sides, nearly impunctate down the middle ; the 

 second segment has on each side at its base a large ovate spot, 

 and all the segments have an interrupted broad fascia of silvery- 

 white pubescence. 



Hab. Congo. 



128. MUTILLA. MEROPE. B.M. 



Female. Length 7 lines. Black, head very small, much 

 narrower than the thorax, the face and vertex thinly sprinkled 

 with short silvery pubescence. Thorax oblong, slightly nar- 

 rowed behind, very coarsely rugose, of a deep obscure red ; the 

 anterior tarsi furnished externally with long black spines, the in- 

 termediate and posterior tibiae very spinose externally, and the 

 apex of the joints of the tarsi furnished with long, black spines ; 

 the calcaria dark rufo-piceous. Abdomen clothed with short 

 black pubescence, the second segment having at the base a cen- 

 tral large hexagonal spot, and two larger spots at its apex, rounded 

 within, and nearly meeting in the centre, of dark orange-coloured 

 pubescence ; the fourth and fifth segments are covered with pu- 

 bescence of the same colour ; beneath, the second segment is 

 coarsely rugose and has a central short longitudinal carina at the 

 base ; the margins of the segment ciliated with glittering golden 

 hairs ; the entire insect sprinkled with long black hairs. 



Hab. South Africa. 



129. MUTILLA MEPHITIS. B.M. 



Female. Length 5-6 lines. Head and abdomen black, 

 thorax ferruginous ; head coarsely rugose and having a thinly 

 scattered glittering pale pubescence. Thorax rugose, the sides 

 and also beneath sometimes dusky ; the form is oblong, having 

 on each side, before the middle, an obtuse tubercle, in some ex- 

 amples nearly obsolete ; the legs covered with a long loose sil- 

 very-white pubescence; the intermediate and posterior tibiae 

 have externally a double row of long black spines, the spines 

 which arm the apex of the joints of the tarsi are also black ; the 

 calcaria and claws ferruginous. Abdomen coarsely rugose and 

 clothed with short black pubescence ; the basal segment above, 

 an ovate spot at the base of the second, and four spots placed 



