NEW AND LITTLE KNOWN HYMENOPTKRA. 247 



and bristles ; tarsi and claws testaceous brown ; the tibiae of the pos- 

 terior pair of legs flattened and broad, the calcaria at the apex of the 

 intermediate tibiae stout, acute and bent at the apex, its hinder 

 margin toothed like a fine comb, the inner spine of the posterior 

 calcaria also toothed, forming a comb-like process much more 

 conspicuous. Abdomen black, with in certain lights a steel-blue lustre, 

 its under surface furnished with a number of thread-like bristles. 



This remarkable little bee I have procured in April in the Pegu 

 Hills, and in August in Tenasserim. Smith says it is closely allied 

 to Macropis; inhabits it resembles Megachile; I have watched it carry- 

 ing a fragment of a leaf to a hole in the post of a wooden house. 



Family Aftdje, Auct. 



19. Megachile atrata, Smith. 



Megachile atrata, Smith, Cat. Hym. Ins. Brit. Mus. I. 182, 112. 



Habitat: Philippine Islands; Tenasserim (Mergui). 



Female : Length 9 lines ; expanse 17 lines. 



Description : ? Head black, the mandibles porrect, very broad, 

 armed with 4 teeth, and clothed with a short rather scanty stiff black 

 pubescence, the disc of the clypeus, the front between the antennae, 

 the vertex and cheeks finely and closely punctured, above and on the 

 sides of the clypeus a little tufty black pubescence ; antennae black, 

 the scape shining, the flagellum opaque ; thorax broad, closely punc- 

 tured, the sides of the thorax and the metathorax posteriorly clothed 

 with dense black pubescence ; the mesothorax has a longitudinally 

 impressed shallow line on the disc, and the scutellum is roughly sculp- 

 tured ; wings f ulvo-hyaline with a broad marginal band dusky black ; 

 the legs black, clothed with black bristly hairs, the apex of the last 

 joint of the tarsi and the base of the claws chestnut brown. Abdomen 

 black, finely pitted and rather sparsely covered with short black 

 pubescence, the 1st to the 4th segments have narrow sub-marginal 

 transverse grooves, the margins beyond being smooth and shining ; 

 the 5th and apical segments clothed with dense black pubescence, 

 the pollen brush very full and jet black, with just a touch of reddish 

 yellow at the base of the 2nd segment below. 



I think there is little doubt that this is Smith's species from the 

 Philippines, the remarkable broad porrect mandibles projecting in a 

 33 



