NEW AMERICAN BEES. 135 



what had a short time before looked like an impenetrable jungle 

 was, after the cyclone had passed, as bare of leaves as an English 

 wood in mid-winter. There is also very heavy rain, as a rule, 

 with these cyclones, and innumerable quantities of eggs, larvae, 

 and perfect insects must be destroyed by the wind and floods. 

 Yet a month after the cyclone mentioned the vegetation had 

 recovered itself, and there seemed to be as many butterflies as 

 ever. Do butterflies know when a cyclone is coming, and take 

 extra precautions to hide in safe spots ? 



Moor Lane, Strensall, York. 



NEW AMERICAN BEES.— III. 

 By T. D. A. Cockerell. 



Triepeolus banksi, sp. nov. 

 $ . Length about 9^ mm., anterior wing 1\ ; black, with the 

 pubescence pale cinereous (not yellowish) ; head and thorax extremely 

 densely punctured ; labruni, antennae, and mandibles entirely black ; 

 maxillary palpi three-jointed, but the basal joint small and easily over- 

 looked ; face covered with appressed silvery-white hair ; thorax short 

 and very high ; scutellum dull and coarsely rugose, feebly or quite 

 strongly bilobed ; the lateral teeth black, fairly large and stout, but not 

 surpassing scutellum ; pleura hairy, the lower part more nude, densely 

 punctured, with a shining spot posteriorly ; markings of thorax above 

 much as usual, but instead of a pair of lines on the mesothorax ante- 

 riorly, there are two large suffused flame-like areas of pale hair, more 

 or less confluent with the pale hair of the lateral corners ; tegulae dark 

 reddish ; wings rather dusky, quite strongly so on apical margin ; legs 

 black, the tarsi, especially the small joints, becoming pale reddish ; 

 spurs brown or reddish ; abdominal bands greyish white ; first segment 

 with the black area a broad transverse band, squared off at the sides ; 

 the apical bands on segments one to three, and the others sometimes, 

 interrupted in the middle, the bands on two and three somewhat club- 

 shaped on each side ; the band on two has a squarish anterior projec- 

 tion at the sides, which forms with the band a right angle or somewhat 

 less ; second and third ventral segments with a broad apical band of 

 white hair ; second segment also with the middle covered with white 

 hair (except sometimes a central spot), but the sides (separated from 

 the light by a straight line, and constituting about one-fourth on either 

 side) dark; outstanding fringe of fourth and fifth ventral segments 

 mainly black. Runs in tables of Triepeolus to T. donatus, Smith, of 

 which it looks like a small form. It is, however, clearly distinct; the 

 basal band of the first abdominal segment is perfectly entire (divided 

 in donatus), the thorax beneath is densely white-haired (black aud nude 

 in donatus), the ornamentation of the mesothorax is different [donatus 

 having distinct stripes), and the eyes are dark coffee-brown (light 

 green in donatus). 



