NEW AND LITTLE-KNOWN SPECIES OF .197 



INDO-MALAYAN HYMENOPTERA. 



and cheeks behind the eyes shining jet-black, the clypeus finely pitted, 

 the antennas black, the front of the face and the vertex with black 

 pubescence, the ocelli in a straight line sunk in shallow depressions ; 

 thorax black with black pubescence, a hoary-gray band on the protho- 

 rax anteriorly not reaching the pectus, which latter is finely pitted 

 and clothed with only scattered black hairs ; the dorsal surface of the 

 mesothorax bare and finely pitted ; the metathorax with a fringe of 

 fuscous hairs turning to hoary-gray ; wings hyaline \Wth a light brown 

 tint, the tegulae and nervures dark brown ; legs black with stiff black 

 pubescence turning to dark reddish-brown on the tibise and yellowish- 

 brown on the tarsi ; claws black. Abdomen black, the base of the 1st 

 segment and posterior margins of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th segments with 

 hoary-gray pubescence, the 2nd segment with a band of brilliant 

 vermillion-red pubescence above, the anal segment testaceous, below 

 the abdomen is piceous-black, thinly pubescent and finely pitted. 



This beautiful species was not uncommon in May around and above 

 Gnatong, the military post on the Sikkim-Thibotan frontier. I found it 

 frequenting the wild Auriculas which were flowering in great abund- 

 ance on the bare slopes of the moraine of the ancient glacier on which 

 the military post has been erected. When disturbed, this Bombus, 

 unlike any other species known to me, has a habit of suddenly rising 

 perpendicularly till it disappears from sight. It does not seem, at 

 any rate in summer, to descend below 12,000 ft. I did not meet with 

 it on the road from Sedonchen until I got to the side slopes of Lintu, 

 the high peak behind Gnatong. 



4.— BOMBUS MOLLERII, n, sp., PI. I, Fig. 4, $ , 



Habitat : Kumaon, Sikkim, over 8,000 ft. 



Female : Length 28 m.m., expanse 58 m.m. 



Description.— 9 . Black with brownish-black pubescence; the 

 mesothorax above, the scutellum and postscutellum and the penulti- 

 mate segment of the abdomen clothed with dense silvery-gray pubes- 

 cence. Head long and somewhat narrow, the mandibles, clypeus, sides 

 of the face and the cheeks shining blacky the antennas piceous, the 

 front of the face, vertex and back of the head with dense dark brown 

 pubescence. Thorax broad, the pro- and metathoi-axj the sides of the 

 body under the wings and the pectus with black pubescence ; the 



