382 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, VIII, 
colour extends on to the posterior face of the metathorax ; the sides of 
the thorax variegated black and yellow, the pectus obscurely brownish 
with lateral black macula, the brownish portion transversely striated. 
The wings hyaline and iridescent, the tegulee and nervures dark brown. 
The legs yellow, streaked with black on the coxee, trochanters, femora and 
tibize above and below, tarsi and claws yellow, the former with ciliated 
ferruginous spines, the latter with their tips black. Abdomen black 
with a purple gloss, minutely and finely pitted, and seen in certain 
lights to be covered by short rather sparse recumbent black hairs ; 
the Ist segment with an elongated triangular macula on either side, 
the 2nd to the 5th segments with biarcuate submarginal bands of the 
same colour, the bands on the 2nd, 8rd, and 4th segments 
have in the middle on either side an oblong black macula, 
the anal segment and the whole ventral surface of the abdomen black. 
All the segments, both above and below, are narrowly edged piceous. 
The first time I came across this species was in September on a road 
near Maulmain. She, for it turned out to bea ©, was flying with a 
large blue-bottle fly tightly clasped between her forelegs. Watching 
her carefully I saw her enter a burrow in the side of the ditch by the 
road. Examining it 1 found the soil was sandy and the burrow not 
deep, so.in order to get a view of the interior of the nest I began 
gently to enlarge the entrance. As I removed the soil the Bembew flew 
out and, after buzzing around for a few seconds, went off. The nest 
hole was sunk obliquely into the ground, and was about 11 inches long 
by about } inch in diameter, slightly larger or bulbous at the end. A 
heap of dead blue-bottle flies in various stages of decay lay piled on 
the floor of the nest, and one yellowish fleshy grub about rd of an 
inch long struggled in and out among them battening on the half 
putrid mass. 
The smell was most offensive. While I was examining the nest 
the @ returned with another blue-bottle. She came straight for 
what had been the entrance, but puzzled apparently by the 
change in its size, kept hovering about buzzing loudly. Finally she 
alighted, walked to the end of the nest and deposited the fresh fly and, 
after parading around for a few seconds, flew off, I then caught her 
as I noticed she was different from the ordinary Bembex fossorius 
which is the common species here. Mr. Weston had told me that the 
