OCR Text |
Show 242 MR. P. CAMERON ON [Mar. 19, The o* is coloured like the $ ; its fore legs may be entirely without black in front and the coxae there pale yellow; the antennae only differ from those of the 2 in being thinner towards the apex : the clypeus is flat, with the sides slightly raised; the lateral suture at the top is not so widely oblique, the space between it and the eyes being much less ; its apex in the middle broadly and roundly projects, and is clearly separated from the lateral portions, which are narrower than it: the epipygium is armed at the apex with two stout teeth ; their basal slope is longer and more rounded than their apical, which is straight and only slightly oblique. Comes nearest apparently to the Australian P. lepidus Fab., but, among other differences, that may be known from it by the clypeus ending in a sharp angle. POLISTES LYCUS, Sp. nOV. Fiavus, abdominis basi nigro maculata ; alis fulvo-hyalinis ; nervis stigmateque fodvis. 2 • Long. 20 mm. Antennae rufous, covered with a white pubescence. The ocellar region is deep black; the front ocellus is separated from the posterior pair by a distinctly greater distance than these are from each other. Clypeus smooth and sparsely covered with rufous hairs ; it is longer than broad ; above it is roundly and broadly incised downwards : the foveae are not widely separated from the eyes; the keel issuing from them to the eyes is not widely separated from the eyes ; the space bounded by them and the latter being narrow, distinctly longer than broad, and not forming a triangle as in P. hebrceus. The part between the antennae distinctly projects. Thorax smooth and shining and covered with a white microscopic down. The sides of the mesonotum at the tegula?, its base more broadly, and an oblique line over the hinder coxae are black. The suture on the mesopleurae below the tegulae is roundly curved on the lower part and bulges backwards below the middle; there is no suture running to the base. Legs coloured like the body. Wings hyaline, with a distinct fulvous tinge, which is deeper and more distinctly visible along the apical margin ; the costa and stigma are fulvous, as are also the nervures. On the abdomen the bases of the basal three segments are black; the amount of the black colour probably varies. This species looks at first sight like one of the pale yellow forms of P. hebrceus, but it wants the black, or at least dark-coloured, waved lines found always on the abdomen of the latter. The two may be readily separated by the difference in the form of the clypeus: in hebrceus its breadth in the middle is not perceptibly greater than its length ; in the present species its length is distinctly greater than its greatest breadth ; in hebrceus, too, the suture at the top is much more oblique, so that its top is much more widely separated from the eyes. |