HENRY J. FRANKLIN. 337 



very closely. Shaft of sagitta straight or nearly so, like that of B. 

 vagans (fig. 67), and with a sharp tooth-like projection on the ventro- 

 lateral side at about the middle, as in that species and mfernaldi. 



Wings. — About like those of the worker. 



Legs. — Coxae, trochanters and femora all with a conspicuous amount 

 of yellow pile ; anterior and middle tibiae and corbicular fringes usu- 

 ally all black. Outer faces of posterior tibiae very slightly convex and 

 nearly naked down the middle portion ; basal halves of outer faces 

 and of hind borders of posterior metatarsi bearing long, and usually 

 mostly dark, hairs. 



Dimensions. — Length: queen, 15 mm. to 18 mm. ; worker, 11 mm. 

 to 15 mm. ; male, 9 mm. to 13 mm. Spread of wings : queen, 29 mm. 

 to 36 mm. ; worker, 25 mm. to 29 mm. ; male, 21 mm. to 26 mm. 

 Width of abdomen at second segment : queens, 8 mm. to 10 mm. ; 

 worker, 6^ mm. to 8 mm. ; male, 5|^ mm. to 7 mm. 



Redescribed from ten queens, eleven workers and fourteen 

 males. 



Habitat. — I have records of this species from Alaska 

 (southern), Mackenzie, Athabasca, Hudson Bay country 

 (Fullerton, one 9 ), Baffin Land (one worker), British Col- 

 umbia, Saskatchewan (a single record), Alberta, Vancouver 

 Island, Washington, Oregon (Mt. Hood and Corvallis), 

 Wyoming and Colorado. Apparently a common species 

 throughout western Canada and in southern Alaska, but for 

 the most part rare in Canada east of the Rocky Mountains 

 and, in the western United States, rare (very rare in Wyom- 

 ing and Colorado) and confined mostly to the mountain 

 chains, being a strictly Boreal form. While it is apparently 

 rather common in southern British Columbia, I have no 

 record from Montana, though I have seen four Schmitt boxes 

 full of bumble-bees from the western part of that state. It 

 seems, however, as though it must be present there and, in 

 some localities at least, in some abundance. It seems prob- 

 able also that it is present in the higher lands of Idaho and 

 northern Utah and possibly also of northern New Mexico 

 and northern California. It appears to reach its maximum 

 abundance in Alaska, where it seems to be the most common 

 species. It is not improbable that melanopygtcs is the same 

 as 7nenestriesii Rad. and present in the Aleutian Islands and 

 Siberia as Herr Handlirsch has indicated, but I have not 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. , XXX VIII. (43) 



