1908.] ON AUSTRALIAN FOSSORIAL WASPS. 457 



2. Notes on the Australian Fossorial Wasps of the Family 

 Sjyliegidce, with Descriptions o£ new Species. By 

 Rowland E. Tuenee, F.Z.S. 



[Received April 6, 1908.] 



(Plate XXYI * and Text-figures 105-110.) 



The Sphegidse of Australia have attracted very little notice 

 since the time of F. Smith ; the only works in which any number 

 of species have been dealt with being Kohl's Monograph of the 

 genus Sphex and various papers by Handlirsch on Benibex and 

 the allied groups. In conseqvience, it has been impossible to get 

 any reliable idea as to the characteristic points which might 

 attract notice as to the peculiarities of Australia in this group. 

 The present paper, although necessarily very incomplete from want 

 of sufficient material, is based upon the large collection formed 

 by the late Gilbert Turner in North Queensland together with 

 smaller additions from other sources. Considering the sandy 

 nature of much of the continent, usually so favourable to fossorial 

 wasps, Australia is rather poor in Sphegidse, and several wide- 

 ranging genera represented in almost every other region seem to 

 be entirely absent. The most notable instances are the genera 

 Fhilanthus and Oxybelus, but ATiiptdex, so conspicuous in the 

 Indian and African regions, is also absent. Nor is it likely that 

 the absence of these genera in collections is due to insufficient 

 field-work, for North Queensland is the most likely part of the 

 continent for these wide-ranging genera to occur in, the line of 

 migration having been through New Guinea. Thus I am able to 

 record two species of Trypoxylon closely allied to Indian and 

 Malayan forms, no species of the genus having yet been discovered 

 in the southern or western districts. On the contrary, genera 

 peculiar to Australia are not numerous and seem to be poor in 

 species, though probably more exhaustive collecting in Western 

 Australia would add to the number. Most characteristic of the 

 country are Sericojyhorns and the allied genera ZoypMum and 

 Sphodroies, also the large Exeirus; but the worldwide genus 

 Pison is much richer in species in Australia than elsewhere. 

 Harpactophilus is apparently a tropical genus, and will probably 

 be found to have its headquartei-s in New Guinea. The small 

 amoiuit of material available from Central Australia seems to 

 point to the plentiful occurrence of a few wide-ranging species, 

 mostly identical with those of Western Australia. 



Stigmus queenslandensis, sp. n. 



2 . Clypeus strongly convex, raised in the middle into a broad 

 carina, which is more narrowly continued on the front to the 

 anterior ocellus. Clypeus and vertex almost smooth, front finely 



* For explanation of the Plate see p. 535. 



