THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 129 



Melissodes Tucker i, n. sp. 

 9 . Runs in my tables to M. perplexa, Cresson, which it very greatly 

 resembles. It differs from perplexa and all the allied species by the 

 character of the mesothorax, which is shining, and closely beset with very 

 deep and large punctures. Compared with a co-type of perplexa, the 

 abdomen appears at first sight to be the same, but there are the following 

 differences : Dorsal region of first segment, except the apical portion, 

 strongly and quite closely punctured (very feebly in perplexa) ; middle of 

 second segment below the band distinctly though delicately punctured 

 (impunctate in perplexa) ; nude margin beyond the white hair-band on 

 third segment very narrow (broad in perplexa). The white hair on second 

 segment takes the form of broad oblique bands at the sides, failing in the 

 middle ; this is nearly as in perplexa, and entirely different from the 

 straight bands (a broad one basal and a narrow one in middle) of M. 

 communis. The legs are practically as in perplexa ; the hind legs have the 

 scopa very large, strongly plumose, pale ochraceous, with the hair on inner 

 side of hind basitarsus brown-black ; the wings are strongly dusky, the 

 tint blackish ; tegulas shining piceous, with a patch of velvety dark fuscous 

 pile, surrounded by pale hairs, in front. The very pale ochraceous hair 

 of the front of the thorax extends back to the level of the tegulae. The 

 head is like that of perplexa, except that the vertex is more strongly 

 punctured, and the fiagellum, except at base, is red beneath. 



Hab. — Piano (about 17 miles north of Dallas), Texas, October, 1907. 

 ( E. S. Tucker.) 



The bee-fauna of Piano, as shown by Mr. Tucker's captures, includes 

 a mixture of humid and arid region species, being, in fact, near the borders 

 of these regions. He has taken there and kindly submitted to me Megachile 

 vallorum, Ckll.; M. brevis, Say ; M. kallstrcemice, Ckll.; Melissodes Hitei 

 (described as M. Marti?ii Hitei, Ckll , but evidently a distinct species), 

 and Florilegus condigna, Cresson. 



Sphecodes pecosensis, Ckll. 

 A variety of the female, with the mesothorax even rougher than in the 

 type, and the area of the metathorax more irregularly sculptured, has been 

 taken at Troublesome, Colorado, June 9, by Mr. S. A. Rohwer, and at 

 Florissant, June 14 and 26, by Mr. Rohwer and myself. At Florissant it 

 visits Ribes vallicola and Prutius melanocarpa. The male has not been 

 described, but specimens were taken at Florissant by Mr. Rohwer, one on 

 sand, two at flowers of Primus melanocarpa, all June 21. This male 



