202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol, 55. 



marks (ending above about middle of front) cream color; hair of 

 head and thorax above fulvous mixed with black, the general effect 

 reddish; scutellum honey color and axillae whitish; first abdominal 

 segment dorsally cream color; third and fourth segments without 

 appressed golden hair. Length 10 mm. 



Port of Spain, Trinidad, " 11.6" (Aug. Busck). 



Type.— Cat. No. 21674, U.S.N.M. 



18&. Hair of mesothorax pale. 



19a. Legs clear red, or red marked with black. 



20a. Larger and more robust ; hair fringing hind tibiae red. 



MELIPONA PSEUDOCENTRIS Cockerell. 



Described from Manaos, Brazil. One collected by Miss H. B. 

 Merrill in the same locality only differs by lacking the bicoloration 

 of the hind tibiae, which are whoUj?^ fulvous. It may stand as 

 variety a. M. pseudoceniris is probably not separable from M. 

 rufiventris Lepeletier, as understood by Friese (from Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil) ; but I here accept F. Smith's interpretation of ru-fiventris., 

 as shown by a specimen from his collection. This appears to agree 

 with Lepeletier's account, though the matter can not be definitely 

 settled without examining Lepeletier's type. Smith, himself, in de- 

 scribing M. mondury Smith (which Marianno says is a synonym of 

 rufiventris) , remarks that ruflventris differs by having the inner 

 orbits of eyes pale and the scutellum black. The specimen from his 

 collection has the orbits as stated, but the scutellum is dull testaceous. 

 It is also testaceous in M. pseudocentris. 



205. Smaller and narrower ; abdomen with linear pale bands. 



MELIPONA FLAVOLINEATA Fric3e=RUFIVENTRIS Lepeletier (F. Smith collection). 



Para and Maranhao, Brazil ; determined by Friese as flavolineata; 

 near Para (Miss H. B. Merrill) ; Palcazu, Peru (from Eosenberg). 

 The specimen from F. Smith's collection has the middle and hind 

 basitarsi. middle tibiae at apex, and more than apical half of hind 

 tibiae, black. This variation, as in the M. pseudocentris series, ap- 

 pears not to be specific ; one of the Miss Merrill specimens shows the 

 same leg-pattern, and is also peculiar for the distinctly narrower 

 face. 



As the identification of M. rufiventris is more or less uncertain, it 

 may be best for the present to discard the name, and use favolineata 

 for the present insect. 



19&. Legs black or dark; pleura with a fulvous patch. 



MELIPONA PSEUDOCENTRIS MERRILLAE, new variety. 



Like M. pseudocentris, but legs very dark reddish; hind tibiae not 

 at all bicolored, the hairs fringing them black; scape much darker, 

 though variable. Length 10 mm. 



