466 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec., ’08 
A new Bee from Tahiti. 
By T. D. A. CocKERELL. 
When Mr. R. W. Doane wrote that he was starting for 
Tahiti, 1 begged him to look out for bees; as, to the best of 
my knowledge, not a single species had been recorded from 
that locality*. He has brought home two species; the larger, 
respresented by three females, proves to be Lithurgus atra- 
tiformis, Ckll., the smaller is a new Megachile. All were 
collected in August, 1908. L. atratiformis has hitherto been 
known only from the warmer parts of Australia; the speci- 
mens from Tahiti are about I mm. smaller than the type, but 
otherwise identical. 
Megachile doanei n. sp. 
é Length, about 10 mm., with a large head and short abdomen; gen- 
_ eral appearance almost exactly like that of the S. African M. latitarsis 
Friese, though the abdomen is shorter. Black, without any red color 
except that due to pubescence; head large; eyes dark purplish; an- 
tennae long and slender, entirely black, not expanded at apex; man- 
dibles tridentate, and with the usual basal inferior tooth; face densely 
covered with long creamy-white hair, tinged with ochreous about 
the level of the upper part of the clypeus, and from this level upwards 
black along orbital margins; vertex dull and very densely punctured, 
with pale yellowish hair, except about ocelli, where it is black; thorax 
with yellowish-white hair, but it is pale ochreous on scutellum, and 
black on disc of mesothorax and middle of pleura; mesothorax and 
pleura dull and very densely and minutely punctured; tegulae black; 
wings strongly dusky, the nervures and stigma black; legs black, the 
hair on femora pale, on tibiae black or almost, on hind tarsi black on 
outer and copper red on inner side; on middle tarsi, copper red on both 
sides, except a little pale yellowish at base beneath; anterior tarsi a 
little flattened and broadened (basitarsus not much over twice as long 
as broad), with a strong yellowish-white fringe of hair; claws cleft 
at apex; abdomen broad and short, rather shining, the first segment 
with long pale ochreotts hair, and indications of a red apical fringe; 
third to fourth each with narrow orange-red apical hair bands; fifth 
covered with orange-red hair, except at extreme base of middle; sixth 
with orange-red hair at sides and paler in the middle; apex of sixth 
segment produced into two widely separated prominent blunt teeth, 
the interval between them strongly concave; seventh segment with- 
out teeth or spines. 
Tahiti, Aug., 1908, 2 males. (R. W. Doane). 
This species is related to several which inhabit Australia. 
It also appears to be close to M. diligens Smith, from Hono- 
lulu; differing in the black hair on the thorax, and other par- 
ticulars. 
* I find, however, one record of a bee from Tahiti: Lithurgus albofimbriatus Sichel, 
Reise der Novara, 1867. This species is also known from Samoa. 
