350 AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 



Types. — Queen in the collection of the British Museum ; 

 worker and male in the collection of the American Entomo- 

 logical Society. The type of consimilis Cress, is also in the 

 latter collection. 



Pile of medium length and usually coarse. Face mostly dark ; occi- 

 put more or less yellow ; thoracic dorsum and pleura yellow ; dorsum 

 of abdomen with basal third usually yellow and apical two-thirds usually 

 black ; venter dark ; corbicular fringes black ; wings not very dark. 



Queen. Head. — Elongate. Face mostly black, but very often with 

 a sprinkling of yellow hairs about the bases of the antennae ; occiput 

 sometimes with a triangular patch of pure yellow pile and sometimes 

 with black and yellow hair mixed in varying proportions ; cheeks dark, 

 occasionally with a very little light pile on the ventro-lateral portions. 

 Labrum with tubercle-like areas moderately separated, their summits 

 only slightly concaved and their margins rounded ; the region between 

 these areas and above the shelf-like projection rather deeply excavated ; 

 the shelf-like projection narrow and not very prominent ; translucent 

 areas large, very plainly visible to the naked eye. Malar space longer 

 than its width at apex, fully one-fourth as long as the eye. Clypeus 

 very sparsely punctate over the disc. Flagellum of antenna about 

 twice as long as the scape ; the third antennal segment much longer 

 than the fifth, the fifth longer than the fourth. 



Thorax. — Center of disc naked, smooth and shining and often with 

 a few black hairs mixed with the yellow surrounding it (most of the 

 specimens from western Ontario, Assiniboia, Alberta and Montana 

 have noticeably more black hair surrounding this bare area than have 

 the eastern specimens, there even being enough in some specimens to 

 form a somewhat indefinite dark interalar band); the remainder of the 

 dorsum entirely covered with yellow pile ; mesopleura covered with 

 yellow pile to the bases of the legs ; metapleura with yellow pile ; 

 sides of median segment with yellow pile, often with black hairs 

 admixed. 



Abdomen. — Dorsum : segments one and two entirely covered with 

 yellow pile; the remaining segments entirely black. Venter black. 



Wings. — Strongly, but not very deeply, stained with brown ; the fore 

 pair lightest across their middle portions, being hyaline or subhyaline 

 there. 



Z,£'^5.— Uusually entirely dark, but the coxae, trochanters and femora 

 often with touches of yellow pile. 



Worker. — Much like the queen ; the occiput sometimes almost en- 

 tirely black ; the wings somewhat lighter than those of the queen ; 

 usually with a little more black hair, mixed with the yellow surround- 

 ing the bare center of the disc of the thorax, than in the case of the 

 queen. 



