140 POMPILIDiE. 



closely and finely punctured, the abdomen with fasciae of silvery- 

 white pubescence. The face below the antennae with bright silvery 

 pubescence, also a line on the margin at the inner orbit of the eyes, 

 as high as their emargination ; the anterior margin of the clypeus 

 rounded. The hinder margin of the prothorax with a little silvery- 

 white pubescence, and also on the sides of the metathorax, which 

 has a deep central longitudinal channel ; the wings subhyaline, the 

 nervures black; the legs covered with silvery pile; the calcaria 

 black. Abdomen much more finely and closely punctured than 

 the thorax ; the segments slightly constricted ; the apical margins 

 of the segments with fasciae of fine silvery pile, which are very 

 brilliant in certain lights, and which are widened laterally. 



Male. Only differs in being smaller and in having an additional 

 joint in the antennas and an extra segment to the abdomen. 



Hab. Sandwich Islands. 



A common but not abundant species ; it was taken in the islands 

 of Oahu, Kauai, and Maui. Mr. Blackburn says that he has bred 

 this species from the same collection of cells as those which produced 

 species of Pelojooeus and of Crabro. This observation appears to in- 

 dicate the habit of the genus to be parasitic ; but this cannot be the 

 case, their economy having been observed and published by Mr. 

 Home in the seventh volume of the ' Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society.' The species construct cells of mud, which they provision 

 with spiders, the food of their young brood. The genus Crabro 

 usually provisions its cells with Diptera. 



POMPILIDiE. 



POMPILUS, Schiodte. 



1. Pompilus pilosus. 



Female. Length 6| lines. — Black ; covered, except the three apical 

 segments of the abdomen, with dense ashy pile. The mandibles 

 ferruginous towards the apex ; the clypeus widely emarginate ; the 

 pile on the flagellum and vertex very thin. The hinder margin of 

 the prothorax angular ; the metathorax with a rather broad central 

 longitudinal channel ; the wings hyaline, the anterior pair faintly 

 yellow, and fuscous beyond the marginal cell ; the nervures pale 

 rufo-testaceous ; the apical joints of the tarsi testaceous, the an- 

 terior pair with long black cilia ; the spines on the tibiae and tarsi 

 black, the calcaria pale testaceous. 



Hab. South Africa. 



