AMERICAN WASPS OF THE GENUS SCELIPHRON KLUG By Bennet a. Porter Of the Bureau of Entomology, United, States Department of Agriculture INTRODUCTION The conspicuous black-and-yellow thread-waisted wasps of the genus Sceliphron are familiar to all who have taken the least notice of insect life. Equally familiar are the mud nests which these wasps construct on the timbers of buildings and elsewhere, inclosing within them spiders for the sustenance of their progeny. The paper here presented, dealing with the genus Scelifhrmi, is a portion of a study made by the writer in 1916 while a graduate student at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, in partial fiulfill-ment of thesis requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy. Since entering the service of the Bureau of Entomology the writer has had opportunity to study all of the material of this genus in the collection of the United States National Museum, which has aided in clarifying certain points which were in doubt. In 1918 Kohl ^ published a revision of the wasps of the subfamily Sceliphroninae of the world. In this paper all the species of the subfamily are placed in the genus Sceliphron. To this and certain other points of interpretation the writer can not agree; they will be discussed in detail below. The present paper is in a sense supplementary to Dr. H. T. Fer-nald's studies of the Sphecinae and Chlorinae, other subfamilies in the family Sphecidae. Hearty thanks are hereby expressed to Doc-tor Fernald for the active interest which he has taken in this study and for assuming the responsibility for material loaned by a num-ber of institutions and individuals. Thanks are also due to Guy C. Crampton for helpful suggestions regarding the anatomy of the group of insects under consideration, and to S. A. Rohwer for facili-tating in every way possible the work of the writer at the National Museum. 1 1918, Kohl, Franz Priedricb. Die Hautflugler gruppe " Sphecinae," IV Tell, Die naturliche Gattung Sceliphron Klug (PelopoUts) Latrielle. In der Annalen des Naturhis-t«rlchen Hofmuseums Wien, vol. 32. No. 265.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 70. Art. I 3017—26 — — 1 1
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