260 Natal Bees 
MEGACHILE VITTATULA, sp. nov. 
@ (Type). Length 125-135 mm.; black, including the legs, 
form robust; vertex, mesothorax and scutellum with short dark 
fuscous hair, the mesothorax and margins of scutellum also with 
shorter greyish hair, producing a speckled effect ; other parts of head 
and thorax with pale hair, white on cheeks, on front greyish and 
slightly mixed with fuscous, on face slightly ochreous, on upper part 
of mesopleura strongly stained with greyish-fuscous ; mandibles very 
broad, quadridentate, dark reddish with the broad cutting edge black, 
beyond the first tooth circumscribed by an impressed line; clypeus 
ordinary, truncate, finely rugose, with the elevated (but not keeled) 
middle line smooth and shining ; antennz dark, scape red at extreme 
base, and fourth joint conspicuously red beneath; vertex very finely 
punctured ; mesothorax and scutellum dull, extremely densely and 
finely punctured ; tegule dark red-brown with a pallid margin ; wings 
greyish-hyaline, the broad apical margin perceptibly darker ; legs with 
pale hair, red on inner side of basitarsi; middle basitarsi broad, 
densely hairy, and the small joints beyond extremely short ; hind 
basitarsi very broad ; spurs ferruginous ; abdomen with fox-red hair 
on first segment, but there is an apical white fringe; segments 2 to 5 
also with white or greyish-white fringes, greyer and less distinct on 5; 
sixth segment with black hair, and greyish-white tomentum, not 
always very evident ; ventral scopa clear yellowish-ferruginous, white 
at base, black on last segment. 
¢. Length 10°5-11°5 mm.; differing in the usual manner, the 
special male characters as follows: anterior cox with short spines, 
easily overlooked; anterior legs mainly dark red on inner side ; 
anterior basitarsi slightly broadened, obtusely swollen anteriorly, with 
a thickened edge which presents beneath a shining trough; middle 
tarsi not especially short, but densely hairy ; keel of sixth abdominal 
segment broadly rounded, variably but inconspicuously denticulate 
(especially at sides), and narrowly emarginate in middle; no median 
spine beneath. The flagellum is dark, and the face is densely covered 
with pale hair, which is more or less yellow, especially on clypeus and 
sides of face. In one specimen the flagellum on one side only is clear 
ferruginous beneath, apparently owing to an error in mitosis, whereby 
a factor was lost from certain cells. 
Stella Bush, 1916 (H. W. Bell Marley), type. Males from Bluff, 
Durban, 25th March, 1917 (C. N. Barker); Winklespruit, Natal, 
4th January, 1919 (C. N. Barker); Umbilo, 25th February, 1917 
(L. Bevis). 
