Records of Bees. 275 



producing a curious wave-like effect; flagellurn (except at 

 base) obscure coffee-brown beneath ; mesothorax dull, with 

 scattered very minute punctures, the median groove strong ; 

 under the microscope the mesothoracic surface is seen to be 

 minutely tessellate ; tubercles densely fringed with pale 

 hair; area of metathorax large, minutely granular, not at all 

 plicate ; posterior truncation heart-shaped, shining, well- 

 defined ; tegulte dark reddish. Wings very dark, with a 

 violaceous lustre ; stigma and nervures dark reddish ; first 

 r. n. meeting second t.-c. ; third t.-c. with a simple curve; 

 b. n. rather less bent than is usual in ITalictus; wings large, 

 as in Parasphecodes. Hind spur simple. Abdomen shining, 

 narrowed basally, widest at the third segment ; apical seg- 

 ments with dark fuscous hair ; no hair-bauds or patches ; 

 hind margin of second segment reddish ; apex of fifth seg- 

 ment obtusely pointed, covering sixth ; venter with white 

 hair, more or less curled, and doubtless pollen-collecting ■ 

 apex of venter with fuscous hair. 



Hob. Melbourne, Victoria, Aug. 1900 (C. F., Turner 

 Collection). British Museum. 



Protoxcea texana (Friese). 



Lee County, Texas, Aug. 10, ?, Aug. 2Q, J , 1907 

 (Birkmann) . 



These splendid bees, which occurred on flowers of Poly- 

 gonum, evidently belong to the species from Texas which 

 Friese named in manuscript Oxcea texana, but published 

 under 0. vagans, Fox. True 0. vagans comes from Lower 

 California, and has the venlral hair of the thorax pallid, not 

 dark brown or almost black as in texana. The eyes also of 

 the male more nearly touch above in vagans than in texana. 

 I suppose that the Cypress Mills, Texas, example cited by 

 Fox was really texana. The male agrees with FMese's 

 description, except that at certain angles slight green and 

 purple tints can be seen on the abdomen, a character more 

 pronounced in the female. The female, not before described, 

 is very large (length about 24 mm.), with the usual sexual 

 differences. The clypeus has coarse, large, partly confluent 

 punctures ; the front on each side of the antennae is dull and 

 granular, not punctured for some distance ; the basal half of 

 the second abdominal segment is rather closely punctured. 

 The insect must go in Protoxcea, as it has six-jointed 

 maxillary palpi. The tongue is linear, though broader than 

 in Oxcea jiavescens ; the apical plate of the abdomen is bi- 

 dentate. 



