﻿SPHEGIDAE ASTATIDES BEMBECIDE 



119 



this Insect, like Pelopaeus, stores its nest with spiders, and 

 Peckholt has remarked that however great may be the number of 

 spiders placed by the mother-wasp in a cell, they are all consumed 

 by the larva, none ever being found in the cell after the perfect 

 Insect escapes therefrom. The European T. jigidus forms a nest 

 either in bramble-stems or in sandy soil or walls ; it makes use 

 of spiders as provisions. 



Sub-Fam. 5. Astatides. — Eyes very large in the male, meeting 

 broadly on the vertex ; two spur* on the middle tibia. 



We have two species of the genus Astata in Britain :, one of 

 them — A. hoops — is known to form burrows in the ground, each 

 of which contains only a single cell ; this, it appears, is usually 

 provisioned with bugs of the 



genus Pentaloma, Insects re- 

 markable for their strong and 

 offensive odour. St. Fargeau 

 records that this species also 

 makes use of a small cockroach 

 for forming the food - store : 

 thus exhibiting an unique 

 catholicity in the toleration of 

 the disagreeable ; almost the 

 only point of connection be- 

 tween bugs and cockroaches 

 being their disagreeable char- 

 acter. According to Smith, Oxybelus, another genus of Fossores, 

 is also used. Authorities are far from agreement as to the 

 validity and relations of the sub-family Astatides. It consists 

 only of the widely-distributed genus Astata, with which the 

 North American Diploplectron (with one species) is doubtfully 

 associated. 



Sub-Fam. 6. Bembecides. — Labrum frequently elongate, 



wing - nervures extending very near to the outer margin; 

 marginal cell of front wing not appendicidate ; mandibles 

 not emargi Hate externally ; hind body stout, not pedicellate. 



The elongation of the labrum, though one of the most trust- 

 worthy of the characters of the Bembecides, cannot be altogether 



Fig. 46. — Astata /mop.*, male. Britain. 



