JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



No. VI.— September 1862. 



XXIX. — Descriptions of new Species of Mexican Pompilidae, belong- 

 ing to the Genera Pompilus, Agenia, Priocnemis, Notocyphus, 

 and Ferreola. By Frederick Smith. 



In the tribe of fossorial Hymenoptera there is no family that contains 

 species so elegant in their forms, or that are more splendidly adorned 

 than are to be found in that of the Pompilidae. These insects have 

 an almost universal geographical range ; but it is in Mexico and 

 Brazil that the most beautiful species are found : every variety of 

 colour, combined frequently with the brilliant effulgence of gold and 

 silver adornment, are there to be met with. The species described 

 in the present paper constitute an important addition to our know- 

 ledge of the group, as not more than six or eight species have, to 

 my knowledge, been previously described from Mexico. 



Family Pompilidae, Leach. 

 Genus Pompilus, Fabr. 



1. Pompilus marcidus. 



P. fiisco-ferrugineus, facie pilis argentatis ornata ; alis fuscis, marginibus 

 apicalibus subhyalini3. 



Female. Length 8 lines. Fnsco-femigino-us, covered with a fine 

 changeable silky pile, that on the face is silvery ; the clypens rounded 

 and margined anteriorly ; the seven apical joints of the antennae black ; 

 the cheeks with a thin cinereous pubescence. The legs of a clearer 

 red than the thorax ; the tibia? and tarsi armed with stout spines ; the 

 extreme apex of the joints of the tarsi of the intermediate and poste- 

 rior legs black ; the wings of a dark-reddish brown, gradually blending 

 into a pale or subhyaline margin posteriorly. The abdomen palest at 



vol. i. 2 o 



