Vol. XXX] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS I7 



Catocala minuta Edwards, n. var. obliterata. 



$ and 9 . — Forewings so heavily overlaid with blackish scales as 

 almost to obscure the ground color and markings, except the ring sur- 

 rounding the black reniform center, which is light brown, and subter- 

 minal line at costa, which is also light brown. Hind wings as in 

 minuta, with the exception of the absence of the yellow apical patch. 

 Expanse 40 n.m. 



Habitat: St. Louis, Missouri. 

 Types : Collection of the author. 



This variety bears the same relation to minuta as agatha to 

 unijiiga, and lydia to fanstina, and somnus to Inciana. 



A New Genus of Bees from Peru (Hym.). 



By T. D. x\. CocKERELL, Boulder, Colorado. 



Among the Old World Halictine bees is a very singular 

 genus, Tkrinchostoma of Saussure ; first described from Mada- 

 gascar, but now^ know^n to be widely distributed in tropical 

 Africa and Asia.* The species have the mouth region pro- 

 longed and more or less snout-like, the malar space large. The 

 wings are hairy, and in the males there is a patch of black hair 

 situated on the second transverso-cubital nervure. There is 

 a hyaline fold or spurious vein extending from the base of the 

 stigma obliquely across the first submarginal cell and across 

 the lower part of the second. The abdomen is subclavate, es- 

 pecially in the males. The tongue is long and slender. 



At Huascaray, Peru, September 21, 19TI, Prof. C. H. T. 

 Tov^nsend collected a very peculiar bee, having the aspect of a 

 male Thrinchostoma, but with slender simple hind legs, and no 

 patch of black hair on the second transverso-cubital nervure. 

 Closer inspection shows it to be a female, and as it is wholly 

 -without pollen- collecting apparatus it must be a parasitic in- 

 sect. It is thus quite distinct from Thrinchostoma and it is 

 an interesting question whether it represents an isolated group 

 of an old Thrinchostomine stock, or an independent evolution 

 of parallel characteristics. It represents in any event a genus 

 new to our classification, though it has in fact been provided 



♦See Canadian Entomologist, Feb., 1913, p. 35; July, 1915, p. 213. 

 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Dec, 1914, p. 452. 



