Records of Bees. 27 



wings. In Friese's table (' Das Tierrcich ') the female runs 

 nearest to M. Candida, Sm., which is mueh larger and alto- 

 gether different, or perhaps equally well to the vieinity of 

 M. zaputeca and piilineri, which are even more different^ if 

 that is possible. The male runs nearest to M. bidens and 

 ixixtla, much larger species. It is worth while to note that 

 the species of Meyachile which I described in 189G from 

 tropical Mexico are placed in ' Das Tierreich ' among the 

 species of the United States, and are quite erroneously stated 

 to come from Utah and New Mexico. I make the male of 

 M. aurantipennis the type, because the separation from the 

 allied bidentis is necessarily based on a comparison of males, 

 only this sex of bidentis being known. By some strange 

 error, the original description of bidentis states that the 

 insect is a female ; it is, in fact, a male. In male bidentis 

 the fifth and sixth abdominal segments are densely covered 

 with golden-ochreous hair, and the apex has a pair of short 

 triangular teeth or tubercles; in male aurantipennis the fifth 

 is largely dark (the surface showing) at base and the end is 

 bispinose. Male bidentis has the wings coloured like female 

 aurantipemris ; male aurantipennis has them much browner, 

 the orange being mixed with fuscous. It is possible, perhaps, 

 that the female described under aurantipennis really belongs 

 to bidentis, but considering the circumstances of capture this 

 is unlikely. No doubt the females of the two will be found 

 to be very much alike, the male aurantipennis having diverged 

 fiom the common type. Another very close relative is the 

 Brazilian M. microsnnia, Ckll. In this (male) the tuft of 

 hair on upper part of sides of metathorax is black and the 

 wings ai-e not reddened. The apex of the abdomen is nearly 

 as in aurantipennis. 



Megachile {Oligotropus) gualanensis, sp. n. 



$ . — Length 8-9^ mm. 



Parallel-sided, black (including antennse, mandibles, and 

 legs), with white hair, on clypeus with long coarse black 

 hairs intermixed, and the same (hardly so conspicuous) on 

 scutellum and hindmost part of mesothorax ; ventral scopa 

 white, on last segment black with some pale at sides ; the 

 four teeth on apical margin of clypeus rather poorly developed 

 and variable ; tegulse piceous at base, testaceous outwardly. 

 AVings greyish hyaline, nervures piceous. Abdomen with 

 narrow white hair-bands. 



(J. — Length 7-8 mm. 



