HENRY J. FRANKLIN. 267 



of Comparative Zoology. I have placed Smith's modestus 

 worker and proximus coloradensis Titus in the synonomy of 

 this species entirely on the published descriptions. The 

 type of howardii Cresson is in the collection of the American 

 Entomological Society as are also specimens of B. proximus 

 named by Cresson. I have examined the type specimen of 

 mckayi ; it is in very poor condition, but it can be plainly 

 seen that it nearly corresponds for the queen to the proximus 

 form of the worker. I consider perixanthus of Cockerell, a 

 cotype of which I have examined, to be nearly typical occi- 

 dentalis, as Greene's original description reads "first four 

 abdominal segments black." 



Pile of medium le^igth and texture. Face with m,ore or less yellow 

 pile ; occiput black in females, yellow in males ; thorax variable, but 

 the anterior part of the dorsum always covered with yellow pile ; abdo- 

 m.en variable, always black at base and white or whitish-ferruginous at 

 apex, black or yellow in the m,iddle ; wings rather light ; legs dark, but 

 the corbicular fringes more or less ferruginous. 



Queen. Head. — Face bearing a somewhat variable mixture of black 

 and yellowish-ferruginous pile ; occiput and cheeks dark. Labrum 

 with tubercle-like areas large and moderately well separated, their 

 summits rather deeply concaved and their margins rather sharply ele- 

 vated ; the space between these areas and above the shelf-like projec- 

 tion rather deeply excavated ; the shelf-like projection prominent and 

 moderately wide. Malar space shorter than its width at apex ; not 

 more than one-fifth as long as the eye. Clypeus moderately punctate. 

 Flagellum of antenna about one and three-fourths times as long as the 

 scape ; third antennal segment much longer than the fifth, the fifth 

 somewhat longer than the fourth. 



Thorax. — Anterior part of dorsum covered with yellow pile, the yel- 

 low usually extending down onto the mesopleura somewhat below the 

 level of the bases of the wings ; the remaining portion of the dorsum 

 sometimes entirely black, sometimes with only a mixture of yellow 

 hairs with the black on the scutellum, sometimes with the scutellum 

 entirely yellow and a black band between the bases of the wings, and 

 sometimes even this band nearly replaced by yellow pile, leaving only 

 the disc dark ; the disc naked, smooth and shining; mesopleura, ex- 

 cept their very upper parts, covered with black pile to the bases of 

 the legs ; metapleura and sides of median segment entirely dark. 



Abdomen.— 'DoxsMva : segments one, two and three entirely black ; 

 segment four entirely black or black with a fringe of white hairs on 

 its apical margin ; segment five covered with white or whitish pile ; 

 segment six either entirely whitish or mostly black with white or whit- 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. , XXX VIII. 



