466 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec. , 'oS 



A new Bee from Tahiti. 

 BY T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



When Mr. R. W. Doane wrote that he was starting- for 

 Tahiti, I begged him to look out for bees; as, to the best of 

 my knowledge, not a single species had been recorded from 

 that locality*. He has brought home two species ; the larger, 

 respresented by three females, proves to be Lithurgus atra- 

 tifonnis, Ckll., the smaller is a new Megachile. All were 

 collected in August, 1908. L. atratiformis has hitherto been 

 known only from the warmer parts of Australia ; the speci- 

 mens from Tahiti are about i mm. smaller than the type, but 

 otherwise identical. 



Megachile doanei n. sp. 



5 Length, about 10 mm., with a large head and short abdomen ; gen- 

 eral appearance almost exactly like that of the S. African M. latitarsis 

 Friese, though the abdomen is shorter. Black, without any red color 

 except that due to pubescence; head large; eyes dark purplish; an- 

 tennae long and slender, entirely black, not expanded at apex; man- 

 dibles tridentate, and with the usual basal inferior tooth ; face densely 

 covered with long creamy-white hair, tinged with ochrcous about 

 the level of the upper part of the clypeus, and from this level upwards 

 black along orbital margins ; vertex dull and very densely punctured, 

 with pale yellowish hair, except about ocelli, where it is black ; thorax 

 with yellowish-white hair, but it is pale ochreous on scutellum, and 

 black on disc of mesothorax and middle of pleura ; mesothorax and 

 pleura dull and very densely and minutely punctured ; tegulae black ; 

 wings strongly dusky, the nervures and stigma black; legs black, the 

 hair on femora pale, on tibiae black or almost, on hind tarsi black on 

 outer and copper red on inner side ; on middle tarsi, copper red on both 

 sides, except a little pale yellowish at base beneath ; anterior tarsi a 

 little flattened and broadened (basitarsus not much over twice as long 

 as broad), with a strong yellowish-white fringe of hair; claws cleft 

 at apex; abdomen broad and short, rather shining, the first segment 

 with long pale ochreous hair, and indications of a red apical fringe ; 

 third to fourth each with narrow orange-red apical hair bands ; fifth 

 covered with orange-red hair, except at extreme base of middle ; sixth 

 with orange-red hair at sides and paler in the middle; apex of sixth 

 segment produced into two widely separated prominent blunt teeth, 

 the interval between them strongly concave ; seventh segment with- 

 out teeth or spines. 



Tahiti, Aug., 1908, 2 males. (R. W. Doane}. 



This species is related to several which inhabit Australia. 

 It also appears to be close to M. diligcns Smith, from Hono- 

 lulu ; differing in the black hair on the thorax, and other par- 

 ticulars. 



* I find, however, one record of a bee from Tahiti : J.ilhnigiis alhotnnbi hit us Sii lid, 

 Reise der Novara, 1867. This species is also known from Samoa. 



