354 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CANADIAN BEES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 



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



The bees in the British Museum are now being rearranged 

 by Mr. G. Meade-Waldo, who has sent me for determination a 

 number of species, some of them Canadian. In recording them^ 

 I give the accession numbers, which show when they were received 

 at the museum. Thus, 99-303 means accession 303 of the year 

 1899. It will be seen that the three species of Osmia here intro- 

 duced as new were received at the museum in 1844, more than 

 20 years before the birth of their describer. Other species were 

 received at the museum long before they were described in this 

 country. 



Megachile femorata Smith. — cf , Canada, près, by Mrs. Farren 

 White, 99-303. &, Canada, 59-130. Smith' s femorata is usually 

 regarded as a synonym of M. latimanus Say, but Titus has treated 

 it as a distinct species. If it is to be separated, the form with 

 hardly any dark color on the anterior tibiae, and the coxal spires 

 stout, must be referred to femorata^ while latimanus male has ap- 

 proximately the basal half of anterior tibiae on outer side black 

 and the coxal spines more slender. According to this separation, 

 the usual Rocky Mountain insect is latimanus, but I have a male 

 femorata from as far south as Las Vegas, New Mexico (at flowers of 

 Asclepias verticillata; W. Porter). It seems probable that the two 

 insects do not represent distinct species. 



Megachile latimanus Say. — 6^, British Columbia (Miss Ricardo) 

 1903-134. cT, Calgary, Canada (Miss Ricardo), 1902-55. These 

 females differ from the ordinary form by the distinctly longer black 

 hair on the dorsal surface of the abdomen. They look a little like 

 M, vidua, but are readily separated by the densely punctured 

 mesothorax and the light hair of last dorsal abdominal segment. 



Megachile wootoni Ckll.— 9 , Calgary (Miss Ricardo), 1902-55. 

 cf , Calgary, with same data. &, Arctic America, 55-42. 



Megachile melanophaea Smith. — &, Hudson's Bay, 44-17.^ ^ 



Megachile relativa Cresson. — d^, Chulukwayuk trail, British 

 Columbia, Aug. 1859. 



Megachile vernonensis, n. sp. — 9, Length, about 11 mm.; 

 black, with long dull white hair; antennae not enlarged at apex; 

 eyes green ; anterior coxae with short but well-formed spines, largely 

 hidden by hair; anterior femora broad, smooth, concave and 

 ferruginous beneath, above with a rather obscure red patch; hair 

 on inner side of tarsi pale orange; sides of vertex with black hair, 

 but none on thorax above; apical carina of sixth abdominal seg- 

 ment with a large rounded (semicircular) emargination, the 

 margin on each side of it jagged with short irregular teeth; 



December, 1912 



