542 



ME. H. N. RIDLEY ON THE 



It plays a very important part in the fertilizatiou of the flowers, 

 especially the Cucurbitaceae. 



30. HaLICTTJS LiEYIPYGA, D. sp. 



Female. Long. corp. 10 millim. ; exp. al. 16 millim. 



Head and thorax dark green, slightly bronzed ; abdomen 

 shining, shading into violet at the extremity of the segments ; 

 wings hyaline ; legs black, clothed with pale hairs. 



Head and face finely and closely punctured, sparingly studded 

 with whitish hairs, dark green, occasionally shading into bronzy 

 or violet in certain lights ; clypeus green or violet-black, with 

 much larger and fewer punctures than the upper part of the 

 head ; the extremity and the labrum black, the lower mouth- 

 parts dull bronzy green ; antennae black, ferruginous towards the 

 extremity beneath ; thorax dark green, thickly punctured, most 

 finely on the prothorax, which shades into bronzy ; metanotum 

 and base of abdomen above densely clothed with whitish hairs ; 

 metanotum with longitudinally diverging striae in front, behind 

 deeply and longitudinally concave, with small punctures, the 

 intermediate spaces still more finely punctured ; tegulse tes- 

 taceous; wings hyaline, with brown nervures and a slight violet 

 iridescence ; pectus dull green, densely clothed with whitish 

 hairs ; propectus violet-black ; legs black, with whitish hairs 

 above, and the tibiae and tarsi densely clothed with red hairs 

 beneath ; the knees (very narrowly), spines, and last joint of the 

 tarsi mostly reddish. Abdomen smooth and shining, the punc- 

 tuation being extremely fine, even under the microscope, and 

 densely clothed with short w^hite hairs, except towards the 

 extremity of the first two segments ; the segments greenish in 

 front and violet-black behind ; towards the extremity the lateral 

 bristles are longer ; under surface of abdomen brown, the ex- 

 tremities of the segments slightly reddish. 



31. Halictus alteenipes, n. sp. 



S 2 ' Long. corp. 11 millim. ; exp. al. 13-14 millim. 



Head and thorax dark green above ; abdomen green, smooth 

 and shining, the neighbourhood of the incisions more or less 

 violet ; wings hyaline, or slightly clouded in and below the radial 

 cell, and towards the extremity of the discoidal cell of the hind 

 wings ; legs reddish, the femoi'a and tibiae in the middle, and often 

 tlie last joint of the tarsi dark green or blackish ; clypeus tipped 



