26 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



THE BEE-GENUS BRACHYNOMADA. 



BY T. D. A. COCKERELL, BOULDER, COLORADO. 



In 1807 Jurine described a curious parasitic bee from Europe, 

 naming it Pasites maculatus. A ferruginous variety (var. bninneus 

 Friese) occurs in Northern Africa; a specimen before me is from 

 Biskra, Algeria, {F. D. Morice). A second species, P. minutik? 

 Mocs., occurs in Hungary; while P. friesei Ckll. comes from Mt. 

 Kilimandjaro in Africa. P. villosus Friese, from the Transvaal, is 

 to be called Margania villosa. Pasites has two submarginal cells 

 in the anterior w4ngs, 12-jointed antennae in both sexes, and the 

 spine at the end of the female abdomen is entire, not bifid as in 

 Ammohates. According to our knowledge of bee-structure, this 

 cannot be a primitive form; it must be derived from an ancestor 

 with three submarginal cells, antennae 12-jointed in the female, 

 13-jointed in the male, and possibly the caudal spine of the female 

 divided. Such a type, agreeing in all general features with Pasites, 

 is found where we might least expect it, in South America, particu- 

 larly in Argentina. I believe the relationship between the Euro- 

 pean and South American genera is a fact, and that we have in 

 America a remnant of a once widely distributed type, which gave 

 rise to the now exclusively ' old world Pasites. The supposed 

 Pasites described by Cresson from Cuba is now referred to Hypo- 

 chrotcenia. The South American genus referred to was named by 

 Holmberg in 1886 Brachynomada. He had two species from the 

 Argentina, which he called B. argentina and B. chacoensis. In 

 1907 Ducke gave the name Nomada tomentifera to a form of B. 

 argentina. Friese, in 1908, gave a synopsis of the species known 

 to him, but unfortunately referred them to Holmberg's Doeringiella, 

 which is an Epeoline genus. Friese showed that the genus ex- 

 tended into Brazil. The list of species, as it stands to-day, is as 

 follows: 



B. argentina Holmbg. B. bigibbosa ( (Friese). 



" tomentifera (Dke.) B. thoracica (Friese). 



B: chacoensis Holmbg. 

 B.franki (Friese). 

 " obscuripes (Fr.). 



January, 1918 



