THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXXVIII.] SEPTEMBER, 1905. [No. 508. 



NEW AUSTRALIAN BEES OP THE GENUS NOMIA. 

 By T. D. A. Cockerell. 



Ten species of Nomia have been recorded from Australia, all 

 described by F. Smith, and published in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 

 one in 1862, and nine in 1875. Smith remarked that N. generosa 

 was probably the male of N. mcerens, and I believe that N. rufi- 

 comis (smithella, Gribodo, 1894) is the male of N. nana ; so the 

 list probably includes only eight valid species. It is evident, 

 however, that it does not do justice to the actual facts, for the 

 British Museum collection contains quite a series of hitherto 

 unreported forms, which I describe below. The Austro-Malay 

 islands (including Celebes, the Moluccas, New Britain, the Aru 

 islands, &c.) are rich in species of Nomia (twenty-one described), 

 but, so far as I am able to ascertain, none of these are quite 

 identical with those of Australia, nor is any species very widely 

 spread among the islands. 



The following table separates the species now described : — 



Hind margins of abdominal segments pearly green ; hind 

 femora incrassate and humped above ( $ ) 



pulchribalteata subsp. austrovagans, Ckll. 

 Hind margins of abdominal segments not so . . 1. 



1. Tegula3 very large, light fulvous; sides of face covered 



with white tomentum ( $ ) . . . . . lepidota, Ckll. 

 Tegula? not especially remarkable .... 2. 



2. Tibire and tarsi red, the former with a suffused blackish 



mark in front ; face covered with fulvous tomentum ; 

 abdomen with rufo-fulvous hair-bands ; hind legs 

 hardly deformed (cf ) . . • • rufocognit a, Ckll. 



Tibiae and tarsi not red, or not distinctly so . . . 3. 



3. Black species ; abdomen without well-developed hair- 



bands ($) tenuihirta, Ckll. 



Abdomen distinctly banded with hair, or the segments 



whitish margined . . . . . . . 4. 



ENTOM. — SEPTEMBER, 1905. T 



