Sept., '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 245 



was very still and iu that peculiar condition which precedes an 

 electric storm. At such times insects are very sluggish and 

 seek shelter against the approaching tempest. The silence 

 was broken only by the rumbling peals of the distant thunder, 

 following the bright flashes of lightning, which illumined the 

 dark thunder-heads of the clouds. It became necessary for 

 me to hasten homeward. To my surprise I noticed on almost 

 every one of the violet-blue spikes of Pontederia cordata, or the 

 pickerel- weed, which in countless numbers fringed the stream 

 on both sides, one to several of these bees. They were so 

 inactive that I could easily knock them off into the cyanide 

 jar. I collected about forty specimens, and might have col- 

 lected hundreds. This phenomenon has never been repeated 

 to my knowledge." 



The technical description is as follows : 



CONOHALICTOIDES n. g. 



The narrow head, the tuberculate posterior coxae, and the 

 structure of the palpi clearly separate this genus from 

 Halictoides. 



Conohalictoides lovelli n. sp. 



9. 6-7 mm. HEAD: Distance between the anterior ocellus and 

 anterior margin of clypeus at least one-half again as great as the distance 

 between the eyes on a line with the antennal sockets ; width of temple 

 nearly equal to the width of the eye ; front closely, finely punctured, 

 sparsely on the eye margins ; frontal impression very slight, a mere indi- 

 cation of a median line, which, just above the insertion of antennae, is a 

 short, shallow, narrow impression ; ocelli arranged in a low triangle, dis- 

 tance between posterior ocelli about twice the distance between the lat- 

 eral and anterior ocelli and about equal to distance between them and 

 nearest eye margin ; vertex with the punctures larger and sparser than 

 on the front ; cheeks rounded, punctured much like the front ; clypeus 

 with the anterior margin rounded, convex, polished, with large, distinct, 

 separated, irregularly placed punctures ; labrum with indistinct curved 

 striae, irregular near apex ; mandibles with a distinct internal tooth about 

 one-fourth the length of the mandible from the apex ; antennae short, not 

 reaching back to the tegulae, scape shining, second joint longer than 

 third, the rest subequal, all joints of the antennae, except the first, dull 

 with very short pubescence ; pubescence of head thin, loose and pale, 

 whitish except on vertex and frons where it is black, abundant on the 

 sides of the lower half of the face, margin of the clypeus with a fringe of 

 long, straw-colored hairs ; black. 



