STUDIES IN THE FOSSORIAL WASPS. 707 



Eiiis (Mesa) hova Turn, 



Plesia {Mesa) hova Turn. Ann. & Mag. ISTat. Hist. (8) i. p. 504 

 (1908), $. 



nab. Madagascar. 



Probably the female of nodosa Guer. 



*Elis (Mesa) abdominalis Guer. 



Plesia abdominalis Guer. Rev. Zool. i. p. 57 (1838), 5 . 

 Plesia [Mesa) abdominalis Saiiss. in Grandidier, Hist. Madagas- 

 car, XX. p. 244 (1892), $ . 

 Hab. South Africa. 



Elis (Mesa) apicipennis, sp. n. 



2 . Nigra ; segmentis abdominalibics quarto apice, quinto sextoque 

 rufo-ferrugineis ; mandibulis basi antennisque ferrugineis, cal- 

 cariis albidis ; alis fuscis, apice anguste hyalinis. 



Long. 10 mm. 



$ . Clypeus finely punctured, broadly rounded at the apex. 

 Head sparsely and rather finely punctured, shining, almost 

 smooth round the anterior ocellus ; interantennal prominence 

 bilobed, divided by a longitudinal sulcus which does not reach the 

 anterior ocellus. Scape shining, very sparsely punctured ; flagel- 

 lum opaque, the two basal joints shining. Posterior ocelli nearly 

 as far from each other as from the eyes. Pronotum and pleui-se 

 closely but not coarsely punctured ; mesonotum and scutellum 

 more sparsely punctured ; median segment opaque, finely 

 punctured, the punctures more or less confluent longitudinally, 

 the median groove shallow and not distinctly margined. Abdo- 

 men shining, finely and rather closely punctured, with a very 

 short petiole, the first segment broadly truncate at the base ; the 

 sixth dorsal segment punctured, rounded at the apex. The sides 

 of the median segment are closely obliquely striated. Third 

 abscissa of the radius at least half as long again as the second ; 

 first recurrent nervure received just beyond the middle of the 

 second cubital cell, second at two-thirds from the base of the 

 third cubital cell. Radial cell not distinctly separated from the 

 costa,, narrowlv rounded at the apex. 



Hab. British East Africa, Makindu, 3300 ft. {S-. A. Neave); 

 April 5-7, 1911 (^. ^. R. C). 



Nearly allied to E. pyxidata Turn, from !N.E. Rhodesia, but 

 differs in the broader sliape of the third cubital cell, the position 

 of the second recurrent nervure, the colour of the scape, of the 

 wings, and of the fourth and fifth abdominal segments, in the 

 finer and sparser puncturation and in the sculpture of the 

 pygidium. The wings are clear hyaline beyond the radial and 

 cubital cells. Basal joint of the posterior tarsi with a scopa of 

 white hairs beneath ; spur of the posterior tibiao bent near the 

 base. 



