the Apidse in the British Museum. 469 



Unfortunately there are also instances in which specimens 

 distinctly labelled with the word "type" have been over- 

 looked, and consequently inaccurate data supplied to 

 Dr. Franklin. 



Species North of Mexico. 



Bomlnis polaris, Ourtis (1831). The type ? is in the 

 British Museum labelled " B. polaris, Curtis. Type from 

 Curtis/' in Frederick Smith's handwriting. 



Bomhus arciicus, Kirby (1821). Type ? in British Mu- 

 seum, labelled " arcticus " in Kirby's handwriting. 



Bomhus frigidvs, Smith (1854). The $ type of this species 

 is clearly labelled as such, with the word " type.'' 

 Kirby's misidentified B. derhamellus cannot be traced. 



Species South of the United States, 



Bomhus trinominatus, Dalla Torre (1890) = Z?. modeslus. 

 Smith (1861) (nee Cresson, nee Eversman). Smith's 

 type is in the British Museum. 



Bomhus formosus, ^m'xiXi {1%5^)=^B. pulcher, Cress. (1863). 

 This species is erroneously recorded from " India " in 

 Catal. Brit. Mus., but this locality is changed by Smith 

 himself in the British Museum copy to "Mexico, 

 Oajaca." The type-specimen from this locality is 

 marked as "type" by Smith, and there can be no doubt 

 that B. pulcheVf Cress., is synonymous. 



Bombus nigrodorsaUs, Franklin (1907) = ^. lahoriosus, Smith 

 (nee Fabr.). Smith's type $ is in the British Museum, 

 and agrees in every respect with specimens of B. nigro- 

 dorsaUs reamed by Dr. Franklin himself. Franklin tells 

 me {in litt.) that he now considers nigrodorsafis and 

 montezumce, Ckll., to be colour-variants of the same 

 species. 



Bomhus thoracicus, Sichel (1862) —B. beUicosus, Smith (1879) 

 =zB. emilice, Delia Torre (1890). Smith's species was 

 quite naturally a source of difficulty to Dr. Franklin, 

 owing to its locality being given as " Sumatra or India." 

 The type-specimen bears no locality-details on the label, 



