72 [March, 



of A. nigroaenea, than to those I have from tibialis ! It is, of course, 

 quite possible that the figures were made from S. melittae, since F. Smith 

 confused the 6 6 of nigroaenea with those of tibialis in normal specimens, 

 and both sexes of these hees he mixed under the name of A. picicornis, 

 when stylopized. In Smith's collection there were two or three specimens, 

 which I take to be the parasite of tibialis. These had a label beneath 

 them "bred from Andr. nigrifrons, April 1875." Presumabl}'^ for 

 nigrifrons (a synomym of Smith's own for A. parvula 6 ) atriceps 

 was intended ! These large parasites could hardly have come from so 

 minute a bee as parvula. If we accept spencii as a name for the para- 

 site of tibialis and give to it the characters used in my table of species, 

 it would appear to be extremely closely allied to S. aterrima Newport, 

 possibly only a large variety of that species. A wing removed and 

 mounted flat on a slide measures (from base of costa to tip) 4 mm. 



The $ cephalothorax varies in colour in a manner similar to that of 

 S. aterrima. It is l*3-l-4 mm. in width across the spiracles. These, 

 according to Pierce, are " dorsal, not reaching the lateral margin," as 

 described from Nassonow's figure. In all that I have examined the 

 spiracles are prominent on each side of the cephalothorax, except on one 

 side onl}^ in one example, and such differences are not in this (nor in some 

 other species that I have examined) of specific value, but accidents of 

 position or preparation. The base of the cephalothorax is darkl}^ infus- 

 cate, and this infuscation is continued rather widely along each side of 

 the thorax to the line of the opening of the brood chamber. Following 

 the basal dark band is a narrow pale one, then a broader dark one, 

 generally darkest towards each side and lying between the spiracles, 

 sometimes very faint or obsolete except towards the sides, and a little in 

 front of this is a narrow sinuate band, sometimes broken in the middle, 

 so as to form two curved lines. In some examples there are very faint 

 traces of banding anterior to this. To avoid repetition I may say that 

 the above description w^ould perfectly fit some specimens of S. aterrima 

 taken from A. trimmerdna. The width of 5 examples of the latter 

 Stylops is sUghtly less on the average, being from 1-2-1 4 mm. 



8. — S. aterrima Newport. 



I possess the fragmentary example actually described by Newport 

 and the two figures of the antenna (fig. \ a) were made from this. This 

 specimen was gummed on a card-point, with the wings torn and partly 

 detached and covered with gum. Amongst the fragments of wing I was 

 fortunate in finding the detached aedeagus. It will be seen that the 



