34 



PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



(3) Silhouette. 19 ^, 7 ?. Most from the low country, but a female comes from the 

 highest forest, over 2000 ft. (August 12, 1908). Two females and a male are "from marshy- 

 plateau of Mare aux Cochons, about 1000 ft.", August 27, 1908. Many are from Grande 

 Barbe. Mr Scott writes that numbers fly around the flowers of certain palms, or round 



Fig. 2. Halictus mahensis, labritm. 



flowers of a low-growing Vinca, &c., gi'owing in waste places on the red earth where the 

 jungle has been cleared. 



The species does not closely resemble any known to me. 



Halictus mahensis race 2^'>"(tslinensis nov. 



$. Clypeus more produced, and its yellow band with a prominent upwardly directed 

 tooth-like extension; tegulfe light reddish testaceous (much darker in typical form); hind 

 legs usually almost entirely red. 



Locality. Six males from Praslin Island, taken by Mr Scott, November 26 — December 

 2, 1908. One has darker tegulae, and the characters of the race are average rather than 

 absolute ones. Mr Scott tells me that Mahe and Silhouette are much alike, but Praslin is 

 quite a different sort of place. 



Family Ceratinidse. 

 Ceratina Latreille. 



5. Ceratina fryeri, sp. nov. 



?. Length about 6 mm., black, strongly punctured; head large, eyes moderately 

 converging below ; face and front shining, with large punctures, so dense that the surface 

 is cancellate ; punctures of sides of face much larger than those on front ; on each side of 

 front is a delicate ridge, running downward close to the eye and turning inward below the 

 antennae, ending at the side of the supraclypeal area ; clypeus elevated into a snout-like 

 structure, with a broadly emarginate projecting edge ; above the edge the surface is densely 

 punctured, and has upon it a small cream-coloured triangle ; below the edge is a large 

 smooth and shining plate, covering as it were the end of the snout, and extending down 

 to the base of the labrum ; this smooth plate has nearly the shape of a half-circle ; labrum 

 with large punctures ; mandibles black, extremely massive at base ; eyes sage-green, black 

 in front ; a tuft of red hair at end of labrum ; antennte short, dark ; thorax strongly and 

 densely punctured, except disc of mesothorax, which is shining and has punctureless areas. 



