2 
Psyche 
[March 
recognized bequaerti as a species of Priocnessus and correctly placed 
Amerocnemis in the synonymy of that genus. The three “male” spe- 
cies, although relatively large and striking, have remained unassigned 
generically and unassociated with any female. Banks noted that these 
species all have what he called “markings suggestive of Batazonus”, 
by which he meant that their color pattern suggested several species 
of Poecilopompilus (—“ Batazonus" of Banks, more properly Bato- 
zonus) in the subfamily Pompilinae. The Poecilopompilus in ques- 
tion (and the “male Amerocnemis ”) all in fact belong to a very large 
mimetic complex of tropical America, centering around quite a 
number of social Vespidae sharing a more or less common yellow, 
ferruginous, and black pattern (Figs. 1-9). 
Although males of these species have been accumulating in the 
collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology over the past 
few years, I found no females to match them. Then, in the summer 
of 1966, Charles C. Porter of Harvard University returned from 
Argentina with an excellent series of Banks’ t( Amerocnemis >> argen- 
tinica , all taken January through April at Horco Molle, Tucuman 
(Fig. 9). The variation in this series was considerable, and led me 
to my initial conclusion, that Banks’ brasiliensis was no more than a 
rather dark extreme of the same species (the Poecilopompilus of 
eastern Brazil also tend to be darker) . Comparison of the genitalia 
of the types of Banks’ two species has confirmed this conclusion. 
At the same locality, Porter collected an undescribed female 
Chirodamus having a rather narrow front and reduced body pubes- 
cence but otherwise typical of this genus. Like many Chirodamus , 
this was a black wasp with bright orange wings, a member of a 
large complex of aposematically colored “Pe^w-mimics” which ranges 
all the way from the western United States to Patagonia (Fig. 10). 
This complex includes Pompilidae of several different genera (Figs. 
Explanation of Plate 1 
Fig. 1. Cerceris sp., $ (Sphecidae). Fig. 2. Mischocyttarus alfkenii 
zikanii Richards, $ (Vespidae). Fig. 3. Poecilopompilus polistoides Smith, 
$ (Pompilidae). Fig. 4. Colpotrochia sp. 1, $ (Ichneumonidae). Fig. 5. 
Dolichomitus zonatus Cresson (subsp.), $ (Ichneumonidae). Fig. 6. Colpo- 
trochia sp. 2, $ (Ichneumonidae). Fig. 7. Cubus sp., $ (Ichneumonidae). 
Fig. 8. Ephialtes bazani Blanchard, $ (Ichneumonidae). Fig. 9. Chiro- 
damus argentinicus Banks, $ (Pompilidae). Fig. 10. C. argentinicus Banks, 
$ (Pompilidae). Fig. 11. Priocnemella omissa Banks, $ (Pompilidae). 
Fig. 12. Chirodamus longulus Banks, $ (Pompilidae). Fig. 13. Priocne- 
mioides unifasciatus luteicornis Lepeletier, $ (Pompilidae). Fig. 14. Chiro- 
damus longulus Banks, $ (Pompilidae). Fig. 15. Apoica thoracica Buysson, 
$ (Vespidae). 
