OF NATURAL HISTORY. 769 



black, segments on their lateral and terminal margins yellow, the 

 latter undulated before ; second segment yellow also at base / be- 

 neath yellow, with black incisures : feet yellowish ; posterior pair 

 darker behind : venter yellow, with two or three slender obsolete 

 dusky bands. 



Length less than half an inch. 



3. P. VALIDA.— Yellow ; middle of the thorax and base of the 

 segments of the tergum ferruginous. 



Inhabits Mexico. 



9 Body dull yellow, with ferruginous sutures : head above, 

 and antennae at base, ferruginous : thorax on the disk ferrugi- 

 nous : wings yellowish ferruginous : tergum with the segments 

 ferruginous at base : venter greenish-yellow, at base ferruginous : 

 feet ferruginous ; coxsb and part of the thigh yellow. 



Length over one inch. 



A large and rather robust species. The male is more exclu- 

 sively ferruginous with the posterior pairs of tarsi whitish ; the 

 head in my specimen is destroyed. [890] 



4. P. MELLIFICA. — Wings yellowish ; abdomen fasciate. 

 Inhabits Mexico. 



Body blackish, sericeous, with a slight golden reflection : cly- 

 peus not acute, but almost rounded at tip : mandibles at tip pi- 

 ceous ; thorax with a distinct, longitudinal, impressed line be- 

 fore, extending to the middle : wings yellowish ; dusky at tip : 

 scutel truncate at tip, or rather very obtusely emarginate : meta- 

 thorax almost vertical, with a distinct, prominent, robust angle 

 each side ; abdomen, first segment, small and short ; second great- 

 ly the largest ; all margined behind with orange yellow : venter 

 with all the margins yellow excepting the basal one. 



% Basal joint of the antennae beneath yellow : nasus very se- 

 riceous, having a whitish reflection : coxae and trochanters yel- 

 lowish-white. 



Length over three-tenths of an inch. 



Not being able to find my notes relative to this species, I can 

 only state, that near Jalapa, my attention was attracted by a 

 group of Indians, who were eating honey from a paper nest, 

 which was then so far dissected in their repast, that I could not 

 1837.] 49 



