4IO ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Nov., 'l5 



Legs. The trochanters mostly dark, but with a slight sprinkling 

 of light hairs on their lower sides ; the femora black, but with a few 

 pale hairs at their very bases on the lower side; corbicular fringes 

 black. 



Worker. Much like the queen, but with lighter, subhyaline wings ; 

 the triangular spot of light pile on the dorsum of the thorax just 

 back of the head white instead of yellow. 



Male. Head. Face well clothed with gray pile (a mixture of long 

 black hairs and shorter white ones) ; occiput with much whitish pile 

 in the middle but with only black hair on the sides ; upper part of 

 cheeks entirely dark, but their lower part with much light pile. Man- 

 dibles with a heavy ferruginous beard. Length of malar space and 

 its width at apex about equal. Clypeus well covered with pile. 



Thorax. Coloration of pile much like that of worker, but the 

 clothing of the scutellum mostly white and a line of white pile running 

 across the dorsum at its front margin. 



Abdomen. -Coloration of dorsum like that of worker. Apical mar- 

 gins of the ventral segments fringed with light hairs. 



Legs. Coxae and trochanters densely fringed with white pile on 

 their lower sides ; femora entirely dark except for a few pale hairs 

 at their very bases ; hind tibiae with long ferruginous fringes (hairs) 

 and with their outer faces sparsely hairy. 



Dimensions. Length: queen, 19 mm.; worker, n mm.; male, 12 

 mm. Spread of wings : queen, 39 mm. ; worker, 25 mm. ; male, 26 mm. 



This species belongs to the pratorum group (I have examined 

 the tips of the genitalia, which are slightly extruded in the 

 type specimen) and seems to be closely related to pulcher 

 Cress. The appearance of this species is very striking, its 

 black and white pile contrasting sharply. 



Eombus nigrodorsalis Franklin. 



Five queens and two workers of this species, which were 

 sent to me for determination by G. Meade- Waldo, of the Brit- 

 ish Museum, show sufficient evidence by their marked varia- 

 tion in coloration to justify the conclusion that nigrodorsalis 

 Franklin and montesumae Ckll. are color variants of the same 

 species rather than distinct species. The name nigrodorsalis 

 has priority. 



These specimens provide the following new habitat records 

 for the species: Ciudad, Mexico, 8,100 ft. (2 queens, Forrer 

 coll.) ; Omilteme, Guerrero, Mexico, 8,000 ft. (i queen, H. H. 

 Smith coll.) ; Xucumanatlan, Guerrero, Mexico, 7,000 ft. (i 



