174 ME. F. SMITH ON NEW SPECIES OF ACULEATE 



Descriptions of new Species of Aculeate Hymenoptera collected 

 by tlie Eev. Thos. Blackburn in the Sandwich Islands. By 

 Eeedebick Smith, F.Z.S. (Commuuicated by Arthur Gr. 

 Butler*, P.L.S.) 



[Bead March 20, 1879.] 



This small collection of Hymenoptera from the Sandwich Islands 

 is an extremely interesting one. It is so not only from the cir- 

 cumstance of the locality being so completely isolated (the nearest 

 point of land of the American continent, California, being about 

 2500 miles distant), but also in consequence of so little being known 

 of the Hymenopterous fauna of these islands ; only some half a 

 dozen species are in the collections of the British Museum, which 

 were obtained on Capt. Beechey's voyage. 



The general aspect of the collection is certainly North- Ameri- 

 can, with a slight mixture of Californian, Mexican, and South- 

 American species. The eight species of Ants are the most diverse 

 in character. One, Cmnjponotus sexguttatus, is distributed through- 

 out Brazil and South America. Another, Fheidole pusilla, the 

 house-ant of Madeira, observed and described by Professor Heer 

 on his residence in the island, is said to be one of the commonest 

 Ants in the Sandwich Islands, where it lives at large, nesting 

 under stones ; the species is cosmopolitan, and in northern lati- 

 tudes takes up its abode in houses ; it is also a common green- 

 house species, and in London is found in bakehouses. Another 

 of the Ants, Solenopsis geminaia, has a wide geographical range ; 

 it is common in Calcutta, is found in most of the islands of the 

 Eastern Archipelago, and also throughout South America and 

 Brazil. The little European Ant, Fonera contracta, we should 

 scarcely have expected to receive from so remote and isolated a 

 locality ; but both the female and worker are in the collection. 

 Seven species of Odyneri are described as new on the authority 

 of Dr. Saussure, whose work on the American "Wasps is so well 

 known. Of Apidge, six species of Prosopis are in the collection, 

 only one of which was previously described. A new species of 

 Megacliile and the common Hive-Bee (^j»«s mellifica) complete the 

 list of the Bees. 



* [The MS. of this paper was placed in my hands for publication subsequent 

 to the death of the author.— A. Cr. B.] 



