Habitat: New York.
Head pale yellow in front, black on the top and hairy. Antennæ black, and shorter than the thorax. Neck hairy, lemon-coloured. Thorax black, and covered with yellow hairs. Wings dark brown, almost transparent; not folded or doubled together. Abdomen black underneath and lemon-coloured above, where it has three black lines crossing it, two of them being broadest in the middle. Anus and breast black. Legs black and hairy; the hinder ones being furnished with two remarkable long spines at the tips of the tibiæ. Tarsi, particularly those of the hinder legs, furnished with very strong hairs, or rather bristles at each of the joints; pale yellow-coloured.
I should have retained the specific name given to this insect by Drury, on account of its priority, but it is so inappropriate, not only being applicable to one sex alone, the female, but the spines on the fore legs being found throughout the genus, as well as in nearly all the burrowing Hymenoptera. Fabricius has incorrectly referred this figure to his Scolia radula, which has a spotted thorax.
PELOPÆUS CÆMENTARIUS.
Plate [XLIV]. fig. 6. Imago—fig. 7. Cocoon—fig. 8. Imago taken out of the Cocoon.
Plate [XLV]. fig. 8. Nest—fig. 9. Section of the Nest—fig. 10. two Cocoons exposed.
Order: Hymenoptera. Section: Fossores. Family: Spegidæ.
Genus. Pelopæus, Latr. Fabr. Sphex, Linn. Drury.
Pelopæus Cæmentarius. Abdomine petiolato nigro, segmento primo (excl. pedunc.) lunulâ flavâ thoraceque punctis flavis, pedibus flavis posticorum femoribus apiceque tibiarum nigris. (Long. Corp. 1 unc.)
Syn. Sphex Cæmentaria, Drury, App. vol. 2.
Pelopæus lunatus, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 203.