Studies of North American Bees 93 



that he expected that it would become necessary to consider 

 cuneata as a subspecies of lepida. The chief differentiating char- 

 acters pointed out by him both then and previously (/. c.) were 

 that in cuneata ^ the tegulae were yellow and the mesoscutellum 

 was usually spotted with yellow, while in lepida ^ the tegulae 

 were red and the mesoscutellum black or red or spotted with red. 

 In the female the only difference indicated was that that sex of 

 cuneata had the abdomen of a darker red than in lepida. Later 

 (/. c, 191 1), he reaffirmed his conviction that the two forms are 

 not specifically distinct, and that cuneata must stand as a variety 

 of lepida, after a study of Oklahoma material which showed in- 

 tergradation. A study of a series of forty-six males and thirty- 

 one females from Nebraska, which theoretically would lie exactly 

 in the inosculating territory of the two nominal forms, presents 

 evidence on this question which is convincing to the writer. In 

 .this series of Nebraska males some specimens have the tegulae 

 bright yellow exactly as in an Illinois male of cuneata received 

 from Robertson, while in others the tegulae are deep red as de- 

 scribed for lepida, and still others, constituting a large part of 

 the series, have the tegulae a sort of yellowish red or reddish 

 yellow in which every degree of transition between the two 

 colors is represented. Taking the twenty-five males from 

 Lincoln and dividing them into two series according to the color 

 of the tegulae, we find fifteen have the tegulae nearest yellow 

 and ten have them nearest red. Similarly, of four males from 

 Falls City at the extreme southeastern corner of the state, three 

 have the tegulae nearest yellow and one nearest red; of ten males 

 from Bellevue, also on the eastern edge of the state, three have 

 the tegulae nearest yellow and ten nearest red ; of five males from 

 Cedar Bluffs, in the prairie region, two have the tegulae nearest 

 yellow and three nearest red ; while two males from Indianola, 

 west of the looth meridian, both have the tegulae bright yellow. 

 Obviously, the series divides nearly evenly on this character with- 

 out any definite relation to geographical distribution. In the 

 same way the spotting of the mesoscutellum varies. In the series 

 just mentioned eight have this sclerite wholly black, four have it 

 spotted with yellow and thirty-two have it spotted with yellowish 



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