THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 131 



SOME NEW BEES FROM FLOWERS OF CACTACE^. 



BV T. D. A. COCKERELL, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO. 



Melissodes opimtiella, n. sp. 

 ^. — Length about 9 mm.; black, with white hair, that on head and 

 thorax all white, without any ochraceous or fuscous ; head broad ; clypeus 

 pale yellow, with the usual spots, and the lower margin rather broadly 

 piceous or reddish ; mandibles with a large yellow spot ; labrum entirely 

 black, with white hair ; scape short, black ; flagellum very broadly bright 

 orange-fulvous beneath, unusually short for a Melissodes^ reaching only to 

 about middle of scutellum ; mesothorax and scutellum shining, with 

 scattered small but distinct punctures ; tegulse testaceous, with white hair ; 

 wings clear, nervures dusky ferruginous ; legs black, with dull ferruginous 

 tarsi ; hair of legs white, ferruginous on inner side of basitarsi ; abdomen 

 finely punctured, the hind margins of the segments broadly hyaline, and 

 with dull white hair-bands ; last two segments with short but evident 

 lateral teeth. Not unlike the Mexican M. otomita Cresson, but with the 

 face broader, the antennae shorter (especially the apical joints), and the 

 mesothorax and scutellum more finely and sparsely punctured. 



$. — Length about 10 mm.; clypeus black, closely punctured ; eyes 

 green ; flagellum short, bright ferruginous beneath beyond the second 

 joint ; hair of head and thorax white, without dark, as in the male ; first 

 abdominal segment with a patch of white hair at each posterior corner, 

 second with a dense basal hair-band and a broader apical one, both 

 straight and uniform ; third and fourth also with broad white apical hair- 

 bands, third with grayish-white tomentum basally ; fifth and sixth with the 

 hair entirely dark chocolate ; scopa of hind legs loose, plumose, adapted 

 for carrying the large pollen of the Optintia ; hair on inner side of hind 

 basitarsi ferruginous. 



Hab. — Brownsville, Texas, at flowers of Opuntia lindheimeri^ both 

 sexes, March 23, 1908 (Jones and Pratt); Hondo, Texas, at flowers of 

 Opuntia^ male, April 30, 1908 (J. D. Mitchell); Cotulla, Texas, at 

 Opu?itia, female. May 5, 1905 (J. C. Crawford). The type is a male from 

 Brownsville. 



In my tables in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, 1906, the male runs to M. 

 snowi, which has the flagellum more than twice as long. The female runs 

 nearest to J/, tepaneca^ a much larger species, with fulvous hair on thorax. 

 It really much resembles the female of M. sphceralcea Ckll., though the 

 latter has dark hair on tlie thorax above. 



April, 1911 



