92 AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 



? Bombus pulcher Cresson, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, VII, 1879, p. 231 

 (Catal.). 

 " ephippiatus var. pnlcher Xnt. Handlirsch, Ann. Naturh. Hof- 



mus. Wieu., Ill, 1888, p. 233, 9 i^ d^. 

 " " var. pulcher Cockerell, Cat. Abej. de Mexico, 



1899, p. 19. 

 var. pulcher Dalla Torre, Cat. Hym., X, 1896, p. 

 518. 

 " pulcher Franklin, Ent. News, XVIII, 1907, p. 91. 



Types. — Smith's formosus is probably still extant in the 

 British Museum collection, and a comparison of some pulcher 

 queens with the forniosiis type would probably settle once for 

 all the old question as to whether there is an East Indian 

 species closely resembling the American one in coloration. 

 Smith's description of formosus deals mostly with coloration 

 and, were coloration alone sufficient to determine a Bombus 

 species, I should say that, without a possible doubt, fonnosus 

 was pulcher. When I think, however, of such cases as the 

 European confusus, which so closely resembles in coloration 

 both brachycephahis and dolichocephalus of Central America, I 

 hesitate to consider two forms the same, even when they are 

 exactly alike in coloration, unless I know their structure 

 is also the same. There are authentic specimens of Cresson's 

 pulcher in the collection of the American Entomological 

 Society. The type specimens of the worker and male castes 

 are in the collection of the k. k. Hofmuseum at Vienna. 



Pile of medium length and rather fine. J^/f alar space of females short, 

 of males medimn. Head dark. Thorax dark on dorsum, but yellow 07i 

 pleura. Dorsum of abdomefi yellow in front and black behind, with 

 ferruginous-red pile 07t the sides of segments two, three, and sometimes 

 four — the last sometimes entirely red-ferruginous . 



Queen. Head. — Fringe on labrum and hairs on mandibles dark yel- 

 lowish-ferruginous, otherwise with black pile only. Malar space dis- 

 tinctly shorter than its width at apex, about one-sixth as long as the 

 eye. Clypeus with disc sparsely and delicately punctate and margin 

 coarsely punctate. Third antennal segment much longer than the fifth, 

 the fifth somewhat longer than the fourth. 



Thorax — Donsum clothed with black pile, but very often with a 

 noticeable admixture of yellow hairs with the black on the front 

 margin ; the very center of the disc naked and shining. Mesnpleura 

 covered with yellow pile from the level of the tegula; to the bases of 



