ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA FROM MESOPOTAMIA. 



827 



...... Lac'inia 



\^,,.S/-jpe5 



Fig. 4. 



Genital Armature of H. 

 ChaldoEorum. 



The genital armature of the $ has 

 a singular character, but it is difficult 

 eitherto describe or figure it intelligibl v. 

 The squama at the apex of each stipes 

 (which in 4 notatus is comparativel,y 

 simple, and in lativentris is so pilose 

 that it can hardly be seen at al') 

 is in this species crossed and partly 

 concealed (in the dorsal view) by a long 

 semitransparent Hacinia' clothed with 

 microscopically fine pubescence, into 

 which it (the squama) is produced. Jn 

 the accompanying rough sketch (Fig. 

 4) drawn from a preparation mounted 

 in balsam this lacinia is inevitably 

 so much foreshortened as to give a 

 very unsatisfactory idea of its actual outline, but when viewed in such an aspect 

 as to shew its full length it appears on the whole very elongately triangular, 

 tapering gradually towards a bluntly pointed apex, and projecting to a consi- 

 derable distance beyond the external outline of the stipes. 

 The species occurred visiting flowers of Zizijphus. 



13. Halictus longulus, F. Smith. — 1 $ , Shahroban (M), 31st July. 



1 $, Qazvin(P), 17th July. 



14. Halictus cingulatus, Morawitz. — 2 ^ $, Qazvin (P), 17th July and 8th 



August. 

 5 2 2 , Qazvin (P), 8th August. 

 1 $ Enzeli (P), 24th September. 



15. Halictus amaranus, n. sp. — 1 5 , Amara (M), 7th July. 



I feel some doubt whether this is more than a local race of picipes, Morawitz ; 

 but as Herr Alfken considers it to be certainly a new species " near obscuratus 

 Mor." It maj' be as well to treat it as such provisionally. 



The single specimen before me is in most beautiful condition. I find in it 

 all the chief characters ascribed by Morawitz to picipes $ — also apparently 

 a " unicum " — including those by which he separates that species from obs- 

 curatus described immediately afterwards. 



The coloration only seems to be rather brighter ; approximately the apical 

 half of each abdominal tergite is distinctly red, only its extreme apical margin 

 is pale and scarious (yellowish) ; and all the tibiae and tarsi are flavescent ; 

 whereas in picipes only " the posterior tarsi " and " the hind tibiae " are des- 

 cribed as " piceous," and of the abdominal tergites Morawitz says simply 

 " apice pallide-rubro.'''' 



All the abdominal segments including the 1st are absolutely opaque (except 

 their linear scarious yellow margins) and covered with an intensely fine and close 

 puncturation. The propodeum is truncate, with a transverse, well defined, 

 basal area, closely and irregularly but minutely rugulose, and sharply margined 

 at the sides ; the mesonotum, and especially the scutellum, more largely but less 

 closely punctured than the abdomen, and so not quite dull ; the postscutellum 

 covered with dense short tomentum ; the first four abdominal tergites have 

 each a distinct and entire basal fascia of white hairs (some of which are scale, 

 like), and those on tergites 3 and 4 are extremely broad (covering nearly half 

 the segment). The sternites, like the tergites, have rufescent apices, and are 

 clothed with many long sub-erect hairs of even length, forming almost such a 

 •' ventral brush " as characterizes the group " Gastrikgida." The whole of the 

 above described pilosity is white, or rather colourless. The clypeus is moderately 

 convex and produced, distinctly shining, with comparatively few, but largo, 

 23 



