SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES sor 
hind knee-plate very small; tuft of hair on hind knees pale 
rufous; hind spurs long and perfectly straight; first abdominal 
segment with long hair; basal part of second to fourth with 
short pubescence which gives a grey surface with numerous 
little black specks, but extreme base of third and fourth, as 
well as of fifth, perfectly black; apical part of 2 to 4 with a 
broad band of rather silky dull white tomentum, narrowest on 
second; 5 has a similar band, but it is broadly stained in the 
middle with fuscous; apical plate obeonieal, rather broad, with 
perfectly even sides, the hair on each side of apical plate 
obeonical, rather broad, with perfectly even sides, the hair on 
each side of it fuscous, shading into a warm red; venter with 
pale hair, stained with fuscous in middle of penultimate seg- 
ment; second ventral segment chestnut red. Differs from 
typical S. belfragei (an Illinois specimen compared) by the 
strong ochreous tint of the hair on the thorax above; the 
darker, duller, punetured tegule; the absence of a yellow 
tint in the wines and the broader second submargined eell. 
Differs from 8. fowleri by the broader abdomen, with the 
bands not so white and not quite so broad; also by the color 
of the thoracic pubescence, and the very much larger second 
submarginal cell. Differs at once from 8. acerba by the light 
hair of the legs; from 8. edwardsii by having three white ab- 
dominal bands; from S. fulvitarsis by the light pubescence of 
head. 
Hab.—Los Angeles, Calif., two specimens (Davidson). 
Melissodes stearnsi, n. sp. 
Female. Length 10 mm. or slightly more; black with dull 
white pubescence, tinged with ochreous on anterior part of 
mesothorax, tubercles, and slightly on abdomen; facial quad- 
rangle about square; eyes (dry) pale greenish; elypeus with 
large punctures; antenne from middle of fourth joint to end 
ferruginous beneath; last joimt a trifle shorter than penulti- 
mate; mesothorax shining, strongly and closely punctured at 
the sides, impunctate in the middle; posterior two-thirds of 
mesothorax, and seutellum (which is well punctured) nude, or 
the extreme sides of these parts may have ochraceous hair, but 
there is no black hair; tegule very dark brown, the tuft of 
pubescence pale; wings dusky, nervures piceous; second sub- 
marginal cell broad, receiving the recurrent nervure not far 
from the end; legs black, eclaw-joints red; hair of legs pale, 
that on inner side of basal joints of tarsi black; scopa of hind 
legs large, in the type full of orange pollen; abdomen convex 
and rather parallel-sided, not broad; first segment with pale 
hair on the eel half: segments 2 to 4 covered with appressed 
