84 AMERICAN HYMENOPTERa. 



II Botnbus modestus Cresson, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, VII, 1879, p. 

 230 (Catal.). 

 " trinomi7iattis Dalla Torre, Wien. Ent. Zeit'g, IX, 1890, p. 

 139. 

 " Cockerell, Catal. Abej. de Mexico, 1899, p. 19 



(Catal.). 



Type. — Smith's modeshis queen is probably still extant in 

 the collection of the British Museum, but Col. C. T. Bing- 

 ham failed to establish its identity for me. 



Malar space rather long. Clypeus smooth, but very delicately punctate. 

 Head dark. Dorsum of thorax yellow in front, but black between wings 

 and zvith only a slight admixture of yellow hairs on the scutellum. 

 Pleura black. Dorsum of abdomen mostly black, except the third a^id 

 fourth segments clothed with yellow pile. Legs dark. 



Queen. Head. — With little or no light or yellow pile. Malar space 

 longer than its width at apex, nearly one-third as long as the eye. 

 Clypeus very smooth and shining, with very delicate punctures. 



Thorax. — Dorsum in front of wing bases covered with yellow pile, 

 between the wing bases black, and on the scutellum black except for 

 a noticeable, though slight, admixture of yellow hairs. Mesopleura 

 entirely black from the level of the bases of the wings to the bases of 

 the legs. Metapleura and sides of median segment entirely black. 



Abdomen. — Dorsum : segments one and two black ; segments three 

 and four entirely covered with bright yellow pile ; segment five mostly 

 black, but with its apical margin fringed with yellow hairs ; segment 

 six with a thin clothing of yellow pile. Venter mostly dark, but with 

 the apical margins of the third and fourth segments fringed with yel- 

 low pile. 



Wings. — Moderately dark. 



Legs. — With all pile black, including the corbicular fringes. 



Worker and male. — Unknown. 



Dimensions. — Length of queen about 19 mm. 



The queen is here redescribed from two specimens in the 

 collection of the American Entomological Society. 



Habitat. — Mexico (Oaxaca). 



I think this species belongs to the Pratorum group and 

 has its closest relative in vosnesenskii. It resembles quite 

 closely, in general appearance, the queen of califoryiicus, but 

 it may be readily separated from that species by its much 

 smoother clypeus and by its more chunky form as well as by 

 certain differences in coloration. 



