1910.] FOSSORIAL WASPS OF AUSTRALIA. 263 



with purple, the radial cell narrowly fuscous along the costa, ; 

 nervures black. 



Length 17 mm. 



§ . Mandibles bidentate, the inner tooth short and blunt. 

 Maxillary palpi short, six- jointed ; labial palpi four-jointed ; 

 labrum transverse and strongly ciliated, borne on a narrow 

 petiole. Clypeus shining and almost smooth, the anterior 

 margin truncate, a carina from the base almost reaching the 

 apex. Head quadrate, slightly rounded at the posterior angles, 

 very coarsely longitudinally rugose. Thorax and abdomen very 

 coarsely longitudinally striated, the strise most regular on the 

 abdomen, more broken and irregular on the median segment ; 

 the sixth dorsal segment and the ventral surface sparsely punc- 

 tured. Pronotum more than half as broad as the head, rect- 

 angular, half as broad again as long, the mesopleurse showing 

 a distinct dorsal surface on each side of the scutellum. Median 

 segment as long as the pronotum, broadened from the base to the 

 apex, obliquely truncate posteriorly, the surface of the truncation 

 punctured. Abdominal segments almost smooth at the base when 

 extended, the first ventral segment with a small acute tubercle at 

 the base ; the sixth dorsal segment shallowly emarginate at the 

 apex and not quite reaching the apex of the ventral segment. 



Black ; the flagellum, the mandibles (except at the apex), the 

 upper surface of the head from the base of the antennas to the 

 posterior margin, the tarsi, and the spines of the tibise dull fulvo- 

 ferruginous. 



Length 11-13 mm. 



Hab. Woodford, N.S.W. (G. A. Waterhouse), <$ $ in cop. 

 Victoria {Berlin Museum), $ • 



Described from three males and three females. 



This remarkable species is very near B. unicolor Guer. in the 

 male sex, except in the anal segment. But the female is com- 

 pletely distinct, and shows that my genus Bhytidogaster cannot 

 be maintained as distinct from Bhagigaster, unless by the character 

 of the oblique grooves on the head of the female, which are 

 wanting in this species. 



Bhagigaster castaneus Sm. 



Bhagigaster castaneus Sm. Cat. Hym. B. M. vii. p. 63. n. 15 

 (1859), 2 • 



d 1 . Clypeus with a prominent longitudinal carina from the base 

 to the middle, finely rugulose, shining at the apex, and rather nar- 

 rowly truncate. Head rugose on the front, coarsely punctured on 

 the vertex ; the interantennal carina well defined, V-shaped ; a low, 

 frontal, longitudinal carina not reaching the anterior ocellus ; no 

 transverse carina between the eyes. Pronotum as bread as the 

 head, closely and not very coarsely punctured, the anterior margin 

 straight and strongly raised, the angles slightly prominent. Meso- 

 notum, mesopleura?, and scutellum coarsely punctured-rugose ; the 

 scutellum triangular, almost pointed at the apex. Median segment 



