260 Mr. F. Smith's Monograph of the 



clothed with yellow pubescence; the wings are brown, 

 palest at the base, and have a bright purple iridescence. 

 The male resembles that of X. africana, but the thorax 

 is uniformly bright yellow above and not bordered in front 

 Avith black pubescence ; it is, however, both on the sides 

 and beneath, of a darker hue; its anterior and inter- 

 mediate tarsi are fringed behind with long, fulvous 

 pubescence, and the abdomen is uniformly yellowish, 

 being darkest on the sides and down the centre. 



Hah. — Natal ; Abyssinia. 



The female varies in having, in good examples, a little 

 yellow pubescence at the base of the abdomen ; it has also, 

 in some instances, a griseous pubescence on the face. 



— 19. Xylocopa torrida. 



Mesotrichia torrida, Westw. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 



113, ^,pl. xi. f. 7, $ (1838). 

 Xylocopa crassa, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 204, ? (1841). 

 Xylocopa torrida, Smith, Cat. Hym. Ins., Apidas, ii. 

 349, $. 



There is little or no doubt of the sexes being correctly 

 united; in 1851 four males and three females were re- 

 ceived from Fernando Po, no other Xylocopa accompany- 

 ing them ; since that time they have been received in 

 collections from other localities ; Dr. Welwitsch took the 

 sexes plentifully in Angola. The male is black, with the 

 head, the anterior half of the thorax, and the four anterior 

 legs, clothed with bright rufo-fulvous pubescence ; the inter- 

 mediate legs elongated, the femora with a long tooth at 

 their base beneath, the first joint of the tarsi being fringed 

 with long pale hair on both sides, the claw-joint is also 

 fringed ; the clypeus and scape of the antennae in front is 

 yellowish-white, the flagellum being fulvous beneath. 

 Length twelve to thirteen lines. 



^ The female is totally black ; the head is large, nearly as 

 wide as the thoi-ax in front ; the face densely clothed Avith 

 black pubescence ; the head is closely punctured and 

 opaque; thorax and abdomen broad, shining, and finely 

 punctured, the disk of the thorax impunctate ; abdomen 

 rather flattened above and fringed at the sides Avith black 

 pubescence ; Avings black-broAvn, Avith a A-iolet and green 

 iridescence ; the basal joint of the anterior tarsus is covered 

 beneath Avith ferruginous pubescence. Length one inch. 

 ^«i.— Fernando Po ; Angola. 



