THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 119 



A NEW LEAF-CUTTING BEIC I ROM THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



BY T. D. A. COCKERKLL, 

 Boulder, Colorado. 



Some time ago Mr. P. H. Timberlakc requested me to examine the status 

 of a megachile now common at Honolulu, but considered to have been intro- 

 duced from some place not determined. It was very much like M. palmarum 

 Perkins, also common in the Hawaiian Islands, but evidently distinct. A few 

 days ago he sent me a long series of this bee, and after prolonged study and 

 comparisons, I can only regard it as undescribed. It belongs to the subgenus 

 Etdricharcea Thomson {Paramegachile Friese), and is very much like the European 

 M. argentate Fabr.* Bees of this type are very widely distributed over the 

 world, so I confidently expected to locate the Hawaiian insect in Japan, China, 

 the Phillipines, Australia, or elsewhere. It is very like M. erimcE Mosc, from 

 New Guinea, but has dusky wings. Superficially, it might be taken for any one 

 of about a dozen species, but it agrees with none. It may have come from one 

 of the other Pacific islands, as Samoa or Tohitic, and it is perhaps significant that a 

 Tahihan Lithurgus has been introduced into Oahu. It is a fact, however, that 

 endemic species of this group of megachile occur in very remote places, and there 

 is no apparent reason why they should not exist in the Hawaiian Islands. M. 

 palmarum is said by Perkins to occur probably in all the islands, and it is quite 

 possible that the new species has existed on one of the islands, though perhaps 

 more recently brought to Oahu. 



Megachile timberlakei, n. sp. 



Male (Type). — Length 8-8.5 mm.; black, parallel-sided, with large head, 

 simple antennae, spined anterior coxae and simple anterior tarsi. Face and front 

 densely covered with light yellow to creamy- white hair; mandibles black, hairy 

 at base; antennae slender, black; vertex with long dark fuscous hair; cheeks 

 above with light yellowish hair, but below it is long and pure white; hair on 

 thorax above and upper part of sides ochreous, varying to paler, beneath pure 

 white; mesothorax and scutellum dull and very finely punctured; a band of 

 tomentum along hind margin of scutellum; tegulae black; wings dusky with 

 black nervures; legs black, with white hair, yellowish on inner side of basitarsi 

 first four abdominal segments with pale yellowish hair-bands, and narrow curved 

 bands in the depressions; upper surface of sixth segment densely covered with 

 white tomentum; apical keel emarginate, with irregular denticles on each side; 

 fifth ventral segment and anterior femora in front more or less pallid, brownish. 



Female. — Length 10-10.5 mm.; supraclypeal area and middle of clypeus 

 exposed ; much dark fuscous hair on mesothorax and scutellum ; ventral scopa 

 pure white, black on last segment. 



Type male, Kaimulai, Oahu (Timberlake) . Also from Honolulu and Makua, 

 Oahu. 



Compared with M. palmarum received from Dr. Perkins, the male differs 

 by the denticulate and less deeply emarginate keel of sixth abdominal segment, 

 the more oblique sub-basal bands of abdomen, and the fulvous or subochraceous 



*In Friese's Die Bienen Europa's there is a curious error in the key, in which the scopa of 

 M. argentata is said to be entirely white. It is black on the last segment, as is correctly stated 

 in Friese's description. 



May, 1920 



