AUSTRALIAN HALICTINE BEES. 243 



mesothorax and scutellum with scanty fuscous hair ; tegulas piceous, 

 shining dark reddish posteriorly ; wings dusky hyaline, stigma and 

 nervures sepia, outer nervures weakened ; first r. n. joining second 

 s. m. at extreme apex ; middle and hind tibiee and tarsi with fuscous 

 hair on outer side ; first two abdominal segments shining, finely 

 punctured, the others dull, and without distinct punctures, except 

 the pihferous ones ; venter with silvery white hair, on the apical 

 segments with fuscous. 



Hab. Calsundra, Queensland, October 30th, 1912 (H. Hacker ; 

 Queensland Museum, 88). Closely related to P. plorator, CklL, 

 but the wings are not so dark, and the punctured first two 

 abdominal segments are highly distinctive. P. famidicauda, 

 CklL, is larger, and has a very different metathorax. 



Halictus melanopteriis, sp. n. 



2 . Length nearly 10 mm. ; black, including the legs and 

 antennae ; head broad, with white hair, which is thin on face, con- 

 spicuous on cheeks ; long pale golden hairs from a fringe below lower 

 margin of clypeus ; clypeus and supraclypeal area shining, distinctly 

 but not densely punctured ; front entirely dull except at sides, where 

 it is somewhat glistening ; thorax with thin white hair, quite 

 abundant on pleura, mesothorax and scutellum with inconspicuous 

 fuscous hair ; tubercles (as seen from in front) ending in a point ; 

 mesothorax and scutellum shining, very finely and quite closely 

 punctured ; scutellum sulcate in middle ; area of metathoi'ax large, 

 bulging at sides, very finely roughened, without distinct sculpture ; 

 posterior truncation shining ; tegulae rufopiceous ; wings strongly 

 stained with blackish, stigma rufopiceous, nervures sepia; outer r. n. 

 and t. c. weakened ; second s. m. broad, receiving first r. n. a short 

 distance before end ; hind legs with dark fuscous hair over knees ; 

 abdomen shining, very finely punctured ; long-triangular patches of 

 dull white tomentum at basal sides of segments 2 to 4 ; apex with 

 dark fuscous hair ; no ventral scopa. 



Hab. Yallingup, near Cape Naturaliste, S.-W. Australia, 

 September 14tb-October 31st, 1913 (E. E. Turner). British 

 Museum. H. melanopterus is very near H. instabilis, CklL, but 

 larger, with darker wings and darker stigma, and the abdominal 

 bands not entire. The abdomen is much like that of H. circum- 

 datus, CklL, but the metathorax is quite different. It is much 

 larger than H. chapmani, CklL, and is readily known from 

 H. convexus, Sm., by its dark wings. 



Halictus disdusus, sp. n. 

 <? . Length about 6 mm. ; black, with the first three abdominal 

 segments bright chestnut-red, but the first dark basally and with a 

 large dusky median cloud, second and third segments with a dark 

 spot at each laterobasal corner ; knees, tibiae and tarsi ferruginous, 

 the tibiae (the first shghtly, the last most) stained with blackish ; 

 head broad, eyes strongly converging below ; clypeus prominent, with 

 a bi'oad pale yellow apical band ; labrum black ; mandibles whitish 



