282 
m H. FRIESE 
the posterior on the underside are thickly covered with stiff rufous pu¬ 
bescence. Wings uniformly fuscous-violaceous, nervures black. The up¬ 
per surface of the abdomen is covered, from the apex of the 1 segment, 
with depressed rufous pubescence; ventral segments are fringed at the 
apex with pale fulvous hair. The apex of the last abdominal segment is 
entire; in the middle is a deep, somewhat triangular depression. The 
apex of the clypeus is transverse, it is not furrowed in the middle. 
Allied to M. bicolor » F.» und der M. othona Camer. 
Neu-Guinea. 
Megachile megistia Camer. 
1901. — Megachile megistia c? Cameron, Proc. Zool. Soc. London I. p. 244. 
«cf. Nigra, dense nigro hirsuta; fronte, facie clypeoque longe albo- 
pilosis; alis nigro-violaceis. 13 mm. 
Scape of antennæ almost bare; the flagellum covered with a pale 
microscopic down. Front and vertex closely and distinctly punctured 
and covered with black hair; the lower part of the front, the face, and 
clypeus thickly covered with long pale fulvous hair; the clypeus is ru- 
gosely punctured. The basal half of the mandibles closely punctured ; 
there is a large, not very sharply pointed apical tooth, and a broad, 
bluntly pointed subapical one. Thorax closely and distinctly punc¬ 
tured and thickly covered with black hair ; the pronotum and the parts 
above and below the tegulæ with longer white hair. The upper part of 
the median segment is opaque and shagreened; the lower irregularly 
punctured. Legs black, thickly covered with black hair ; the base of the 
anterior with longer white hair; the anterior femora in front and the 
middle joints of the front tarsi are rufo-testaceous; the coxæ are not 
toothed. Abdomen black; the 4th and 5th segments edged towards the 
apex with rufous ; the apex of the last segment has a wide rounded in¬ 
cision in the middle; the sides of the incision project into a blunt 
tooth ; outside there are two shorter, blunter teeth ; the central part is 
roundly raised and surrounded by a wide depression; the apical half 
in the centre is distinctly keeled. The ventral surface is more or less 
brownish; the epipygium is obliquely raised and obliquely narrowed to¬ 
wards the apex, which is acutely pointed. The wings are uniformly fus¬ 
cous-violaceous, with black stigma and nervures. 
Comes nearest to M. alecto Smith, from New Guinea: that species 
may easily be known from it by the central keel on the last segment 
of the abdomen extending backwards to the base of the segment, it 
being also much broader ; the apex of the abdomen too is not too- 
