262 Natal’ Bees. 
MEGACHILE FLAVIBASIS, sp. nov. 
9 (Type). Length about 11°5 mm. ; black, including antenne and 
greater part of legs, but the broad mandibles are dark red, anterior 
trochanters and femora broadly red above, middle femora with a red 
stripe above; vertex and dorsum of thorax with much long black 
hair, but on the thorax mixed with pale, and metathorax with very 
long light yellowish-fulvous hair; cheeks and under side of thorax 
with dull white hair; first abdominal segment with long yellowish 
hair like that of metathorax ; segments 2 to 5 with linear dull white 
hair-bands ; coarse black hair before these bands, and on sixth 
segment; ventral scopa pale orange-ferruginous in middle, broadly 
white at sides, black on last segment. Very near to J/. venustella, 
Ckll., with the same dull mesothorax ; tegul piceous, with the margin 
anteriorly pallid; middle of clypeus strongly punctured, with no 
smooth line; lower margin of clypeus with a transverse bow-shaped 
shining callosity, which gives it a subemarginate appearance ; hind 
basitarsus about as in venustella. 
g. Length 85-9 mm.; hair of head and thorax variably yellowish, 
but usually strongly so, especially on posterior part of thorax ; long 
black hair on vertex, and plentifully intermixed on mesothorax, 
but not scutellum; face covered with pale golden hair; first two 
abdominal segments with long reddish-yellow hair, sometimes very 
brightly coloured; abdominal hair-bands fulvous to pale ochreous ; 
sixth segment above densely covered with pale ochreous tomentum, 
the transverse keel strongly emarginate in middle, and on each side 
feebly crenulate or sub-denticulate, or almost entire ; third and fourth 
ventral segments emarginate, the fourth with broadly pallid margins. 
Anterior tarsi simple, but reddened ; anterior coxe with small spines, 
hidden in the pale yellowish hair ; middle tarsi with very long pale 
ochreous hairs behind ;_ hind tarsi with long hairs on each side; the 
hind basitarsi not longer than the next three joints together, the last 
joint long. I suppose this to be the male of /lavibasis because (a) it 
comes from the same place, (b) it has the same strongly yellowish hair 
on thorax behind and base of abdomen, (c) the tegule are dark though 
varying to red anteriorly, (d) the mesothorax has the same dull 
surface, and the vertex exactly the same sculpture, (e) the dusky 
wings are the same. ‘There is no other female in the collection which 
could be associated with the males. The female is evidently related 
to M. wilmsiana, Strand, from the Transvaal, but is distinct. 
Type from Umbilo, 7th February, 1917 (L. Bevis). Males from 
Umbilo, 25th February, 1917 (. Bevis), three specimens ; and 
Durban, 24th December, 1916 (C. N. Barker). 
JOHN SINGLETON & SONS, PRINTERS, DURBAN. 
