188 . Stethorectus. INSECTS. Pomfilid^e, 
stops up the entrance with a few pebbles, which she 
brings with her long spinose feet, the anterior tarsi of 
which are strongly ciliated. She does not wait till each 
caterpillar is devoured before supplying another. If 
uninterrupted in her economy by weather or other 
circumstances, the whole are stored up in a few hours, 
and she then begins to form a fresh burrow. This 
species seems to be peculiarly attached to caterpillars 
as the food of its progeny. Its ally, the Ammophila 
viatica, seems usually to prey upon spiders. There are 
three other British genera — Miscus, Sphex, and Doli- 
churus. It is doubtful if the Sphex be indigenous ; 
and the Dolichurus is a rare Devonshire insect. We 
have not the curious “Dirt-daubers,” so nicely de- 
scribed by Gosse in the Zoologist, and also by the 
venerable Abbot of Georgia in an extract quoted by 
me from his manuscripts. — (See a paper on Darwin’s 
Spiders in the Annals and Magazine of Natural His- 
tory about the jmar 1842.) Our figure (Plate 7, fig. 8) 
represents the Pelopceus spirifex, a common species in 
southern Europe, the habits of which are described 
by many writers. 
STETHOEECTUS INGENS, or Great Brazilian Spider 
Wasp, figured in Plate 7, fig. 11, is, perhaps, the largest 
of all the species of the family Spkegidce. It was de- 
scribed by Mr. F. Smith, in the twentieth volume of the 
Annals and Magazine of Natural History . The male 
is two inches and some lines in length, while the female 
is only two lines short of her mate. Both sexes are 
black, and very smooth and shining, the wings being of 
a dark metallic blue. The head is large and subqua- 
drate ; the eyes are large and oval. The clypeus has 
four teeth in front, the two outer the largest. The man- 
dibles are large, stout, and arcuated. The maxillary 
palpi are six-jointed, the terminal joint being very 
minute; the labial palpi are four-jcinted, the terminal 
joints being conical. The thorax is very long and 
strong. The upper wings have one marginal and three 
submarginal cells, the second submarginal cell receiv- 
ing two recurrent nervures. The hind legs are elon- 
gated. The abdomen is ovate-conical, and abruptly 
petiolated. 
The negro children in some parts of Jamaica have 
given the name of Grave-digger to a species of Sphex 
which Mr. Gosse noticed there, and has described in 
his usual very interesting way. He noticed this Sphex 
at work on a deserted earthen floor of a boiling-house 
at Bluefields. He observed, when examining this floor 
closely, that there were numerous holes entering dia- 
gonally into the dry and dusty ground. From some 
of these flies are emerging, while others are entering. 
You may hear a buzzing in some of them : this pro- 
ceeds from a Sphex actively at work. “ At first,” says 
Mr. Gosse, “ we cannot see what she is doing, for she 
crawls in head-foremost, and in a second or two comes 
out tail-foremost, recedes a few inches and then 
advances again, again emerges in the same manner 
and again enters, and continues thus to crawl back- 
ward and forward with bustling activity, and with 
much flirting of the purpling wings. She is almost 
white with dust.”* 
On a close examination Mr. Gosse found, that each 
* Gosse: Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica, p. 146. 
time the Sphex came out she brought a load of the 
earth larger than her head, and held tightly between 
the tibiae of her two fore legs, her breast, and her chin, 
and dropped this burden an inch or two from the 
cave’s mouth. He noticed that she sometimes dragged 
out a still larger stone, and grasped it with the jaws, 
pulling it to a distance of four or five inches, for fear 
it should roll in again. “ I have seen her bring two 
stones together, one grasped beneath the chin, the 
other in the jaws. Each time she has dropped the 
load, she never fails, as she advances, to keep the 
road clear by scraping with the fore shanks, throwing 
the dust behind her. But for this, the earth brought 
out would soon accumulate in a heap and roll back.” 
He noticed that when a dry leaf or small stick happened 
to drop against the mouth of the hole, the Sphex seized 
it with her curved jaws, and carried it to a safe distance. 
When the hole is finished, and the egg deposited, 
with a store of disabled spiders and caterpillars to feed 
the larva when hatched, the Sphex fills up the hole by 
scraping back a little heap of dust, pushing it in with 
her head. This is repeated several times till the hole 
is full, and the dust has been well rammed down with 
the insect’s head. As the ground is soft, and the 
insects are very indefatigable in their labours, these 
cells are soon made. 
Fa mily — POMPILID iE. 
In the family of Pompilid.®, a most extensive group 
of the order Hymenoptera, the insects store up cater- 
pillars and spiders for their young. The prothorax is 
usually transverse, and broader than long; the hind 
margin is arcuate or subangular. The legs are long ; 
the abdomen is more or less oval, and is attached to 
the thorax by a short peduncle. 
Many of the British species store up spiders as food 
for their young, such as Pompilus fuscus, P. gibbus, 
&c. ; while others take caterpillars, such as Pompilus 
niger. 
POMPILUS PUNCTUM, a British species, wants the 
cilia on the fore tarsi — a sure indication of a difference 
of habit. Mr. Smith obtained from the Rev. W. 
Delmar the cells of the Pompilus, found near Canter- 
bury ; they were formed of mud, and were placed 
irregularly side by side, and much resembled those 
made by the genus Pelopceus. 
There are two other British genera of this family . 
One of these, Ceropales, is considered by some writers 
as parasitic on Pompilus. From tbeir legs being almost 
destitute of spines, and from the tarsi having no cilia, 
it is probable that they have some peculiar economy. 
Species of this genus are found in all quarters of the 
globe, some of which are distinguished by a remarkable 
beauty of colouring, an I others by the hind legs being 
disproportionately long. In the females the antennae 
are always straight, and not convolute, as these organs 
are in Pompilus. 
Dr. Kitto* observed a species of this group at Bag 
dad. In his journal of August 29, 1831, he remarks 
“ The wasps here are of a species and size I have not 
* Journal, quoted in Hyland’s Memoirs of John Kitto, D.D., 
p. 428; 1856. 
