The typical Genus _Sphex_ contains a number of fine black wasps more or less clothed with silver or golden pubescence on the head and thorax, with the slender pedicle at the base of the thorax very well defined, and the hind portion of the abdomen almost round or oval. They form underground burrows branching out into a chamber at the end, in which they store all kinds of different insects, each species seeming to have a preference for its particular choice. _Sphex vestita_, one of our largest species, has the face thickly clothed with silvery pubescence; it is often common in sandy patches in gardens, where it hunts for small orthopterous insects, and is particularly fond of a species of small brown cricket which lives in the long grass. _S. opulenta_ is a smaller species about ¾ of an inch in length, with the face and back of the thorax bright silver, and the dorsal surface of the latter coppery. About 30 species are described from Australia, some of which have a very wide range over the interior. The LARRIDES are medium sized black wasps with the abdomen not stalked, but coming to a point at the junction with the thorax, and often ornamented with golden or silvery pubescence forming bands on the body. Shuckard described a number of our species belonging to the Genus _Pison_ (Trans. Ent. Society 1837–40), where he gives some account of the group. Smith in the same Transactions, 1869, catalogued those previously described, and added a number of new species; and also added the Genus _Parapison_, containing species from India, Ceylon and Australia. The European _Tachytes_, which Westwood says are captured in sand banks, are represented here by three species, all shining black insects about ½ an inch in length. Saussure (1855), and Kohl later have described others. _Pison spinolae_ and _P. decipiens_ are both black wasps with silvery bands upon the sides of the abdomen; the latter are the smaller. They are both common about Sydney, and have a very wide range over the country; they are very fearless insects, flying into the house, and wherever they come upon a convenient hole in the rung of a chair, or even a key hole, will set to work and line it with clay, forming an irregular chamber, which they store with small spiders, deposit the egg, and after closing it up fly away quite satisfied. Sometimes they form a row of round clay cells on a coat or other garment hanging on a wall.