COCKERELL— HYMENOPTERA, APOIDEA 37 



black, covered with black hair which is more or less reddish at ends, and with a median 

 patch of bright yellow hair above ; black hair on hind tibia forming a broad band. 



Compared with M. caffni (L.) it is uniformly smaller, and differs in the dark colour 

 of the hair of the tarsi, as well as in having a vertical yellow band on the clypeus. The 

 hair on the middle of the abdominal dorsum is much shorter than in caffra. 



?. Like that of M. caffra but smaller, length about 18 mm. 



Locality. Mahe, Seychelles, both sexes [H. Scott). Two males are dated November 

 1908. A female has been opened, and found to contain the usual abdominal mites, belong- 

 ing to the genus Paragrecmia. 



This is the insect recorded from the Seychelles by Perez (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 1895, 

 p. 205) as Xyhcopa caffra and by Cameron (Trans. Linn. Soc. London, ser. 2, Zool. xii., 

 p. 70) as Koptorthosoma caff'rum. Upon comparing the Seychelles series (5 ?, 4 $) with 

 a good series of genuine M. caff'ra from Cape Colony, I am convinced that they are 

 separable, though very closely allied. On the other hand, M. incerta Perez, from Nossi-Be, 

 has most of the essential characters of the Seychelles insect, and the differences are only 

 such as might be attributed to variation. Considering the remote locality of the Seychelles 

 bee, it might seem more logical to treat it as a species, but there is a certain practical 

 advantage in connecting it with M. incerta; and, in fact, it is not impossible that it 

 represents incerta introduced by man at an early date, and now somewhat modified. 



Family Anthophoridse. Subfamily Anthophorinse. 

 Anthophora Latreille. 



9. Anthophora antimena Saussure. 



Anthophora antimena Sauss. ; Grandidier, Hist. Madagascar, xx., Pt. i. (1891), p. 6. 



Locality. Aldabra, September 1908, one female (./. C. F. Fryer). 



I have never seen an authentic specimen of A. antimena, descril^ed from Madagascar, 

 and so make my determination with a certain measure of doubt, since the bee belongs to 

 a group of closely allied forms, difficult to separate. There are however several characters 

 which seem to be distinctive, and agree with those described for antimena. Such are the 

 dull greyish fulvous (" fulvo-cinereus ") tint of the pubescence, with a plentiful admixture 

 of dark hairs on the head and thorax above (" pilis fuscis intermixtis"); the thin but 

 evident appressed fulvous hair on the dark parts of the abdomen (" abdomine fulvo-cinereo 

 appresso-piloso ") ; the dullish fulvous apical bands ; the conspicuous patch of black hair in 

 the middle of the fifth segment (" segmento 5° $ macula nigra"); and the black hair on 

 the inner side of the hind tibia and basitarsus. The wings are faintly dusky ; the hair 

 on the outer side of the hind legs is ochraceous ; the labrum is yellow, with the usual 

 basal spots ; the clypeus has a transverse yellow band, joined with a median upright one 

 which runs to a point ; there are the usual supraclypeal and lateral marks. 



It is fully 200 miles from Madagascar to Aldabra, but there are other islands 

 between. 



