360 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [May, 



SOME BEES FROM AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, AND THE NEW HEBRIDES. 



BY T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



In a paper published in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1913 

 (pp. 28-44), I gave a summary of the then known bee-fauna of 

 Australia. During the last two years additional material has come 

 to hand, and the present paper represents the completion of the 

 later work, so far as the material now available permits. 



Perhaps the most interesting problem now before us in connection 

 with the new collections is that of the radical difference between the 

 bee-faunae of Tasmania and New Zealand. It becomes increasingly 

 evident that while Tasmania is very poor in genera as compared 

 with the Australian mainland, it is extremely rich in species in 

 comparison with New Zealand. There can be no doubt that careful 

 collecting in New Zealand will yield a number of additional species, 

 but it is impossible to believe that it will at all approach Tasmania 

 in the extent of its bee-fauna. The Tasmanian bees are very close to 

 those of Australia, and many are even identical, showing clearly the 

 derivation of the fauna. The New Zealand fauna is also wholly 

 of Australian type, but extremely poor in genera and species. Isola- 

 tion has prevented the accession of species from across the water, 

 but one would expect a much greater development of endemic forms, 

 something more or less parallel with the condition in the Hawaiian 

 Islands. The New Zealand species are all endemic ; Prosopis vicina 

 Sichel was said to occur in Tasmania and New Zealand, but it was 

 almost certainly based on a mixture, and the name is to be restricted 

 to the New Zealand species. "Andrena" infima Erichs., from 

 Tasmania, is probably, but not certainly, Halictus lanarius Smith. 

 Mr. Meade-Waldo of the British Museum agrees with me that 

 Paracolletes providus Sm. is P. chalybeatus Erichs. The species which 

 Smith called chalybeatus Mr. Meade- Waldo thinks should be united 

 with P. obscurus Sm. With these amendments the lists for Tasmania 

 and New Zealand stand as follows. The Tasmanian species also found 

 on the Australian mainland are marked with an asterisk. 



Tasmania. (79 species.) 



Prosopis alcyonea Erichs.* Prosopis perhumUis Ckll.* 



honesta Sm. xanthospheera Ckll. (King I.) 



hobartiana Ckll. accipitris Ckll. 



