306 AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 



Types. — Described from a single aberrant male from Con- 

 necticut which I have not located. There are, however, three 

 males, labelled by Cresson and giving his idea of the spe- 

 cies, in the collection of the American Entomological Society. 

 The queen and worker types (described as ridingsii by Cres- 

 son) are also in this collection. 



Pile of medium lenc^th and rather coarse. Head black for tnost part ; 

 occiput bearing a patch of yelloiv pile ; thorax, except disc of dorsutn, 

 covered with yellow pile ; abdomen with basal segynent attd basal middle 

 of second segment of dorsu^n covered with yellow pile, the remainder 

 usually black. Malar space rather long. 



Queen. Head — Elongate triangular in form ; occiput bearing a tri- 

 angular patch of yellow pile, sometimes pure, sometimes with a very 

 strong admixture of black hairs ; remaining portions of head bearing 

 black pile only. Labrum (fig. 114) much as in B. affinis, hut with the 

 tubercle-like areas rather broadly rounded over, without sharply ele- 

 vated margins and not very much excavated at the summit, also with 

 shelf-like projection connecting them rather narrow and weak ; trans- 

 lucent areas very large, easily visible to the naked eye. Malar space 

 distinctly longer than its width at the apex, slightly more than one- 

 quarter as long as the eye ; clypeus sparsely punctate, shining ; third 

 antennal segment distinctly longer than the fifth and the fifth distinctly 

 longer than the fourth. 



Thorax. — Dorsum covered for the most part with yellow pile, disc 

 naked, impunctate and shining, the surrounding pile with a more or 

 less strong admixture of black hairs sometimes slightly suggestive of a 

 black interalar band. Pleura bearing yellow pile nearly to, in many speci- 

 mens quite to, the basesof the legs ; sides of median segment usually bear- 

 ing yellow pile, but in some specimens with almost entirely black pile. 



Abdomen. — Dorsum with basal segment bearing only yellow pile ; 

 second segment with a basal middle patch of yellow pile of varying 

 size, sometimes a mere strip and sometimes reaching back nearly to 

 the apical margin of the segment, the remainder of the segment covered 

 with black pile; the remaining segments bearing only black pile. 

 Venter rather sparsely clothed with dark hair. Hypopygium without 

 median carina. 



Wings — Strongly but not deeply stained with brown ; fore wings 

 darkest at the median and submedian cells and at the anterior and 

 apical portions of the radial cell and in the broad apical area beyond 

 the region of the veins. 



Legs. — Coxae, trochanters and femora bearing black pile, rarely 

 with a very slight sprinkling of yellow hairs ; anterior and middle 

 tibiae and corbicular fringes black. Posterior metatarsi bearing only 

 very short hair, spines and pubescence. 



