36 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



stripe, starting from the base, middle tibiae with only a small spot ; middle femora flattened, 

 obtusely angulate beyond middle below ; hind femora with a prominent erect tooth below 

 near base ; abdomen dark yellowish-green, the hind margins of the segments narrowly dull 

 ferruginous ; apex broadly and squarely truncate, the truncation proceeding from a much 

 broader base, so that the side of the apex shows a very strong double curve; second ventral 

 segment with a shining transverse tubercle near the base. 



Locality. Dennis Island, Seychelles, August 1908 {J. C. F. Fryer). 



This is a member of Ashmead's subgenus Zaodontomerus (cf Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., December 1899, pp. 404 — 406), and curiously enough, appears to find its nearest 

 relative in the palasarctic C. dentivciUris Gerst. The apex of the abdomen, however, is 

 not as in dentiventris ; it may better be compared with that of the Mexican C. bakeri 

 H. S. Smith, although the apical lobe is much more produced than in the Mexican 

 insect. 



7. Ceratina tahescens, sp. nov. 



$. Length about 4;^ mm. ; a nearly uniform dark green ; clypeus with a broad ivory- 

 white stripe, rather sharply pointed above, obtusely below, with straight sides for the 

 greater part of its length ; labrum entirely dark ; flagellum dark red beneath ; antennal 

 sockets in large depressed basins; face and front shining, sides efface with large punctures 

 on a shining ground; cheeks with a row of punctures next to orbital margins; mesothorax 

 shining, finely punctured ; tubercles largely white ; tegulee ferruginous ; wings slightly 

 dusky ; second s.m. very broad at base, but narrowed to a point above (not narrowed to 

 a point in nodosiventris) ; third t.c. practically straight above the bend (curved above the 

 bend in nodosiventris) ; legs dark brown, femora brown-black ; anterior femur with a short 

 pale stripe beneath ; anterior tibiae with a pale stripe on outer side ; hind tibise with about 

 the basal half white on outer side ; hind margins of abdominal segments not evidently 

 discoloured ; apex pointed as usual. The supraclypeal area is smooth and shining, with 

 three or four punctures, whereas in C. nodosiventris it is covered with fine wavy irregular 

 longitudinal striae, with minute scattered punctures (characters determined with the 

 compound microscope). 



Locality. Mahe, Seychelles, collected by Mr Hugh Scott " in marshes on coastal 

 plain at Anse aux Pins and Anse Royale," January 19 — 21, 1909. 



Another species of Zaodontomerus, closely related to G. nodosiventris, but evidently 

 not its female, from the smaller size, and the differences in sculpture and venation. It 

 very closely i-esembles C. nautlayia Ckll., from Mexico and Costa Bica. 



Family Xylocopidae. 

 Mesotrichia Westwood. 



8. Mesotrichia incerta seychellensis, subsp. nov. 



$. Like M, incerta (Perez), but hair of abdominal venter white at sides, black in 

 middle, nowhere yellow; long hair of anterior tarsi black, but some yellow above (especially 

 at base) and reddish beneath ; hair of middle tarsi black, but dense and fulvous heneath 

 beyond basitarsus ; hair of hind tarsi entirely purplish-black ; apical segment of abdomen 



