250 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



punctures and with stout striae ; the apical tooth bluntly rounded ; 

 the subapical much shorter, bluntly rounded. Clypeus closely 

 rugose ; the apex in the centre slightly broadly incised, the sides 

 broadly rounded. Front with a distinct furrow down the middle. 

 Thorax closely, strongly punctured ; the hair on the top short, close 

 and black ; on the pleurae and breast longer, denser and soot-coloured. 

 The female of imitata, as named by Smith for me, has the wings 

 much lighter coloured, the mandibles behind the apical two teeth 

 broadly bisinuate, which is not the case with comhala ; the hair on 

 the face and clypeus white and thick, not black and rather sparse ; 

 the hair on the thorax is lighter coloured, and the ventral scopa is 

 paler at the base. I am somewhat doubtful about Mr. Smith's 

 identification of his species ; the specimens, however, are rubbed, 

 and that may account for them not agreeing with the description. 



The male has the face, clypeus, cheeks and oral region densely 

 covered with long white hair ; the front with long soot-coloured, the 

 vertex with shorter black hair ; the fore femora, tibiae and tarsi are 

 rufo-testaceous in front ; the fore coxae armed with a stout longish 

 tooth, which is broader and testaceous at the base ; the basal joint 

 of fore tarsi greatly dilated, pale yellow, densely fringed with long 

 clear white hair below ; the middle tarsi fringed with longer white 

 hair, the hinder with rufous pubescence on the metatarsus, as in the 

 female. The apex of the last segment is stoutly irregularly serrate ; 

 there are four or five teeth on either side, the number and form 

 appear to vary in old examples ; the central two are more widely 

 separated than the others. The apical tooth in the male mandibles 

 is longer and sharper pointed than it is in the female ; it is probably 

 abraded in the latter. Tegulae black. 



Appears to come close to M. imitata, Sm., described in both sexes 

 (Cat. Hym. Ins. Brit. Mus., i., 158), but nothing is said about the 

 apex of the abdomen in the male being denticulate. 



Megachile hakthula, sp. nov. 



Black; the head and thorax densely covered with long whitish 

 hair, that on the mesonotum having a fulvous tinge ; the basal four 

 abdominal segments thickly covered with long fulvous pubescence, 

 the fifth with long, stiff black hair, its apex with a band of pale 

 depressed pubescence ; the sixth sparsely with long black hair ; the 

 ventral surface rufo-fulvous, the segments fringed with pale 

 pubescence ; wings hyaline, the apex infuscated, the nervures black; 

 the sixth segment incised in the middle at the apex, the incision 

 becoming gradually wider towards the apex, its base rounded; its 



