40 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



14. Megachile seychellensis Cameron. 



Megachile seychellensis Cameron, Trans. Linn. See. Lend., ser. 2, Zoology, vol. xii., 

 p. n (1907). 



Locality. Mahe, Seychelles {H. Scott) ; Silhouette, Seychelles (H. Scott) ; Praslin, 

 Seychelles [Gardiner); Farquhar Atoll [Garclincr). The Silhouette specimen, one female, 

 is from Mare aux Cochons, September 1908. Mahe specimens have the following data: 

 (1) Cascade Estate, 800—1000 ft. ; (2) Cascade Estate, about 1000 ft., December 1908 ; 

 (3) near Morne Blanc, 1908 ; (4) Long Island, July 12—22, 1908. 



Mr Scott writes that they burrow in banks, in the red earth. He sends some nests, 

 which are made of leaves in the usual manner. The cells are about 14 mm. long and 7^ broad. 



Cameron describes the ventral scopa as white, but it is black on the last segment 

 and the greater part of the fifth. The species appears to be very closely related to 

 M. albiscopa Saussure, from Madagascar. It is a very ordinary little species, greatly 

 resembling the European M. aincalis Spinola ; and also very similar to the Australian 

 M. quinquelineata Ckll. Both sexes vary considerably in size ; one male from Mahe is 

 only about 8 mm. long. 



I find, to my surprise, that it is almost impossible to distinguish M. seychellensis from 

 the Hawaiian M. palmarnm Perkins, 1899. In the female, M. palmarum has the 

 mesothorax evidently less densely punctured, arid the black hair of the ventral scopa is 

 confined to the last segment. The extreme sides of the third and fourth segments show 

 some black hair in seychellensis, whereas in j9aZ?>irt?'i(??i this is found only on the fifth and 

 sixth. The black hair at the sides of the abdomen also serves to distinguish the male 

 seychellensis. The males, however, are almost exactly alike, and had they been found in 

 the same region no one would have thought of separating them. 



Perkins states that M. p(7Zmar?mi nests frequently in leaves of coconut and other 

 palms, when they have been rolled up by the larva of a Pyralid. The nesting habits are 

 therefore different from those of M. seychellensis. 



Dr Perkins expresses the opinion that M. palmarum has been introduced into the 

 Hawaiian Islands by man, as it is now common in Honolulu, but was not collected by 

 Blackburn, who could hardly have overlooked it, had it been present in his time. 



Megachile seychellensis race aldabrarum nov. 



Agreeing with M. seychellensis, but uniformly smaller ; males 7 to 8, females 8 to 

 9 mm. ; hair on inner side of hind tarsi paler and dullei\ 



Localities. Aldabra, 1 $, 4 $, 1908 {J. G. F. Fryer) ; Aldabra, one male, 

 December 1908 {Fryer). Assumption Island, 5 ? {R. P. Dupont). 



Family Apidse. 



Apis Linnaeus. 



15. Apis unicolor Latreille. 



Apis unicolor Latr., Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat., v. (1804), p. 168. 



Localities. Numerous workers from Mahe and Silhouette, Seychelles (//. Scott) ; one 

 from Cosmoledo, 1907 (H. P. Thomasset). A male from Cascade Estate, Mahe, March 



