1908.] AUSTRALIAN FOSSORIAL WASPS. 467 



posterior ocelli a little nearer to each other than to the eyes. 

 Head shining, finely and rather sparsely punctured, the front 

 with very short silvery pubescence, the sparse long hairs on the 

 vertex Torownish grey. Pronotum transverse and vertically 

 depressed ; the mesonotum sparsely, the mesopleurae closely punc- 

 tured ; scutellum flat. Median segment punctured-rugose, with a 

 short longitudinal sulcus near the apex, without a sulcus from the 

 stigma. Petiole as long as the basal joint of the posterior tarsus ; 

 the pubescence on the petiole and the sides of the median segment 

 long and whitish, on the dorsal surface of the median segment 

 very pale brown and very sjDai-se. Abdomen shining and almost 

 smooth, the first segment as long as the second, the apical segment 

 finely punctured and subopaque. The first recurrent nervure is 

 received near the apex of the second cubital cell, the second near 

 the base of the third cubital cell ; the second cubital cell is veiy 

 large, subrectangular, more than half as long again on the cubital 

 nei'vure as high. 



Black ; the abdomen with obscure blue reflections. Wings 

 dark fusco-hyaline flushed with purple, nervures black. A patch 

 of short fulvous pubescence at the apex of the posterior tibiae. 



c? . Similar to the female, but the emargination on the middle 

 of the apical margin of the clypeus is very faintly indicated ; the 

 abdomen is pruinose. 



Length, 5 21 mm., J 19 mm. 



Mab. Mackay and Cairns, Queensland {Turner) ; December to 

 March. 



The wings are rather paler in Cairns specimens. 



Allied to >S'. ustulatus Kohl, from Timor, also to >S'. morosus 

 Sm. and S. praslinius Guer. The last two may pi-ove to refer 

 to one species. The emargination of the clypeus and the pale colour 

 of the pubescence will serve to distinguish the present species. 



Sphex (Isodontia) nigellus Sm. 

 Sphex nigella Sm. Cat. Hym. B. M. iv. p. 255, 1856. 

 Hah. Mackay and Cairns, Queensland [Turner). 

 This species seems to occur throughout Southern Asia and also 

 in W. Australia. 



Sphex (Isodontia) obscurellus Sm. 



Sphex ohscurella Sm. Cat. Hym. B. M. iv. p. 251, 1856. 



Hab. Tasmania. 



Very near S. nigellus, from which it may be distinguished by 

 the much shorter petiole and by the shape of the third cubital 

 cell, which is as long as the second on the radial nervure ; the 

 clypeus is also rather longer. 



Sphex wallacei, nom. nov. 



.Sphex nitidiventris Sm. Proc. Linn. Soc, Zool. iii. p. 158, 1859 

 (nee Spinola). 



Kohl states that nitidiventris S^Din. also occurs in Java and 



