Records of Bees. 361 



slender ; anterior femora with long white hair behind and 

 yellowish white in front, and beneath with a very well-defined 

 oblique band of pure white felt or tomentum ; anterior tibiae 

 reddish brown in front and near base, very thick, bulging 

 and almost angular behind, posteriorly with an even brush- 

 like fringe of fulvous-tinted hair; the inner edge of the 

 anterior femora has a white tegumentary band, while the 

 tibiae, seen from within, are shining white, with a black 

 margin, the apical end pale fulvous ; anterior tarsi very 

 extraordinary, being broadly expanded, the main part of the 

 joints black, with a short silvery hair-fringe in front, but the 

 expanded lamina white, with a broad black stripe along the 

 posterior margin ; the expanded white part of the third joint 

 looks greyish exteriorly, having on the inner side a very large 

 long-oval black spot ; ferruginous claws are almost sessile on 

 this great expanded structure ; anterior coxae with much 

 white hair, but no spines, their trochanters beneath red ; 

 middle and hind knees red, their tibiae more or less reddish, 

 their tarsi entirely red ; no band on first abdominal segment ; 

 sixth segment obtusely binodulose, the small nodules close 

 together; no ventral spines. 



This species resembles M. nigrovittata, Ckll., and M. mo- 

 desta, Sm. The male is easily known by the extraordinary 

 anterior legs. The female is known from such species as 

 M. rhodura, Ckll., and M. gilbert iella, Ckll., by having the 

 red or orange colour of the apex of the abdomen wholly due 

 to hair. 



Hab. Mackay, Queensland ; female at flowers of Eucalyptus, 

 Dec. 1899 {Turner, 291) ; males, April 1899 and Sept. 1900 

 (Turner, 5 a). British Museum. 



Megachile strricauda, sp. n. 



cJ. — Length about 8 mm. 



A short, rather robust insect, resembling the group of 

 M. macularis, sequior, cygnorum, and kurandensis, but the 

 thorax without hair-spots, and the margin of the sixth abdo- 

 minal segment strongly but irregularly dentate or serrate, 

 with a rounded central emargination. Black, with the dorsal 

 pubescence fulvous and the ventral white ; face densely 

 covered with golden-fulvous hair ; mandibles black, faintly 

 reddish toward the apex, very hairy ; eyes green ; antenna? 

 black ; vertex closely punctured, but shining ; mesothorax 

 and scutellum dull, very densely and minutely punctured ; 

 fulvous hair of thorax abundant. Legs ordinary, except that 

 the very hairy anterior basitarsus has a large, deep, hairless 



