1920] Luiz and CockereU, Notea on American Bees 595 



Melissodes luteicornus Cockerel!, 1898/, p. 314. Las Cruces, Xkw Mkxico? 

 at Cevallia sinuata. 



CkMjkereU, 1906, p. 310. Mesilla Valley, New Mexico. 



Melissodes Romand, 1841, PL lxx 



(Type: Melissodes fonscolombei Romand) 



Cockerel!, 1912rf, p. 267: ^^ Melissoden is usually credited to Latreille, 

 but it was defined, and species assigned to it, by F. Smith in 1854. Lepe- 

 letier described what was understood to be Latreille's insect as Melissoda 

 latreillii; this is Acanthopus goryi Romand. Mr. J. C. Crawford writes in 

 a letter that Romand in 1841 included a species in Melissodes; I have 

 not had access to this work." Apparently Romand is the real author of 

 the genus. Romand's account of Melissodes fonscolombei is extremely 

 confused, and his figures are bad. He supposed he had both sexes of a 

 single species, the male from the Antilles, the female from Chili. In a 

 postscript he states that the true insect of Latreille is from the Antilles. 

 The figures indicate that the two insects were both males; one, presum- 

 ably from the Antilles, a Melissodes in the modern sense; the other a 

 Diadasia. His Figure 6 shows well the apex of the abdomen of cf 

 Diadasia, and 5 B appears to be a Diadasia leg, with thickened femur. 

 But figures 1 A, 2, 3, 5 A and 7 all indicate male Melissodes. The light 

 clypeus and long antennae are well shown, and the wing agrees, except 

 that the third submarginal cell is too broad above. We propose to 

 restrict the name to the last mentioned, thereby conserving Melissodes 

 in the sense of modern authors and of Latreille. Unless fonscolombei 

 can be definitely identified by finding the type or in some other way the 

 justice of crediting the genus to Romand may be questioned. 



Dalla Torre, 1896. Includes Melissodes under Eucera. 



Epimelissodes Ashmead, 1899, p. 163 (Type: M. atripes Cresson) 

 might be considered a subgenus. 



For keys, etc., see Robertson, 1905, and Cockerel!, 1905e, 1905/j, 

 1906, and 1912d. 



acerba. See Tetralonia. 



acomanche. See atripes acomanche. 



actuosa. See Tetralonia. 



afflicta. See Diadasia. 



agilis Cresson, 1878a, p. 204. cT. Texas; (Belfrage). 



CockereU, 1894, p. 234. Juarez, Mexico; VIII. 



Robertson, 1896, p. 176. Carlinville, Illinois;, at Silphium perfoliatum. 

 CockereU, 1897c, pp. 23, 24, 28. iSo<'orro, Mesilla Valley, and Or^an 

 Mountains, New Mexico. 



