Cockerell, T. D. A.

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Two Nocturnal Bees and a Minute Perdita

Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU Co Bee Lab 3-29-1923 Two Nocturnal Bees and a Minute Perdita T. D. A. Cockerell University of Colorado Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_co  Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Cockerell, T. D. A., "Two Nocturnal Bees and a Minute Perdita" (1923). Co. Paper 658. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_co/658 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Bee Lab at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Co by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@usu.edu. G>cke;,e//-/9ol 3 l AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES No. 66 TWO NOCTURNAL BEES AND A MINUTE-PERDIT A Issued March 29, 1923 BY ORDER 011' THE TRU STEES OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY NEW YORI!: CITY AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES Number 66 March 29, 1923 59.57,99 TWO NOCTUR AL BEES AND A MINUTE PERDITA BY T. D. A. COCKERELL The bees described below were received from Dr. J. Bequaert, to wh~m I am greatly indebted for the opportunity to examine and describe such unusual and interesting forms. The types will be placed in the American Museum. Megalopta (Megaloptella ) vigilans , new species Figure 5 d".-Length about 11 mm., anterior wing, 8.4 mm. Rufotestaceous, the bead and thorax strongly suffused with yellowish green; apical half of flagellum dusky; wings dusky. Very like M. idalia Smith (specimen from Manaos, Brazil, compared), at first sight appearing identical, but clearly separable by the following characters: face not bicolored; the clypeus and suprac lypeal area (which is conspicuously narrower than in idalia) testaceous, strongly suffused with golden green; lateral margins of front (along emargination of eyes) brilliant rosy-purple; third antenna ! joint shorter (about as broad as long); fu-st recurrent nervure joining second submarginal cell before end; scute llum horter; third ventral segment of abdomen strong ly and nar-rowly emarginate, and with a very fine raised median line running its whole length. By the structure of the third ventral segment this approac hes M. a,gis Vacha! from Brazil and M. a,thautis Vacha! from Peru. Exact locality unknown. The unique specimen was collected by Mr. Austin Curtis at one of the harbors of the Caribbean Sea, perhaps on the coast of Venezuela. Megalopta has been found as far north as Mexico (M. tabescens Cockerell); it has not been reported from the West Indies. Megaloptella Schrottky, to include the group of M. ida lia, is certainly a valid subgenu XE:aoPHASMA, new genus (Panurgidre ) Pale nocturn al bees, with immense ocelli; compound eyes large, inner orbits approximate ly paralle l, facial quadrang le much longer than wide; thorax thinly hairy. Abdomen rather broad, with little hair except at apex. Legs thin ly hair y. Wings ample, with very large stigma; lower sect ion of basal nervure stro ngly arched, falling a considerable distance short of the nervulus; marginal cell moderate ly elongate, broadly and square ly truncate, forming an ang le with the costa a littl e less than a right angle; three cubital cells, the first very long, much longer tha n the others com-bined; second small and triangu lar, petiolate above, receiving the first recurrent nervure a short distance before its end; third large and subquadrate, broader below than above, receiving the second recurrent nervure at its extreme end, meeting the 2 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES [No. 66 outer intercul:iitus; other featmes of venation, and hind wings, as in Perdita. Female with mandible st raight and simple; facial fovere linear , but short; a Y-shaped carina on front, the ante rior ocellus between the forks; claw with an inner denticle; pul-villi very large . I hav e not ventured to extract the mouth-part s of the unique type. TYPE.-X. bequaerti. Xerophasma bequaerti, new spec ie, Figures 1 and 2 c;> .-Length aboul 10.5 mm . Light testaC'eous, without dark markings. but eyes dark; flagellum r.ufesccnt apically. Wing clear hyaline; stigma pal e clear ferru-ginous, lighter in middle; nervures very pale, reddish. Mesothorax with four longi-tudinal grayish-pellucid . tripes, and a faint median one; base of metathorax large, du llish. Abdomen moderately shining, with obscure reddish snbapical bands, and on the fifth segment a pair of spots. Hind tibire long and slender; hind hasitarsi somewhat longer than the remaining joints together. Fabens, EI Paso Co., Texa (about 30 mile. outheast of El Paso, in the valley of the Rio Grande ); taken at light, about 10 P.M. , July 9, 1917; (J . Bequaert). This is a most extraordinary bee, closely related to Perdita, but with the gigantic ocelli of the halictine Megalopta and a small econd submarginal cell. Large ocelli have developed in nocturnal Mutillidre and variou groups of bees , evidently quite independently. The testace-ou color is also characteri tic of the e noctumal insects , no less in the present insect than in the great Xylocopa tranquebar-ica. (Fab riciu,) of India, which Bingham says "is crepuscular; on fine moon light nights its loud buzzing can often be heard all night long." On the whole , however, Xerophasma is the most extreme of the noctmnal bees yet discovered. It is an interesting question whether Xerophasma diverged from the ancestral stern of P erdita before the second submarginal cell had been lost, or whether the ·mall econd cell is a later development. I strongly incline to the latter view, and it is possible that the nervmes bounding it are not the two intercubitals of ancestral bee , but one intercubital which has become split to admit the small cell. In any event, Xerophasma, which i undoubtedly allied to Perdita, shows us how striking character may arise independently in different series and illustrates the possibility of artificial classifications based on such character . In describing Perdita bradleyi, Viereck states that in a specimen before him "the left wing has three submargina l cells by virtue of the first transverse cubitus forking near its base where it join s the cubitus. In the right wing there are but the normal (for this genus) two sub-margina l cells." In de cribing P. nov;eangli;e, he leaves us to suppose that the venation is quite normal for the genus; but in 1917 he erects for { ( ·~ ) Hl23] NOCTURNAL BEES AND A MINUTE PERDITA 3 J ."} 4 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. }?ig. 5. \ I I -I / / ----/ l•ore wing of Xeropha~ma bequae,li , <;?. Head of Xerophasma bequaerti. Forewing of AlloJJerdita novaianglial Viereck. Forewiug of P erdita minima. Head of M egalopta vigilans, cl'. 2 it a subgenus Alloperdita and states that there are three submarginal cells. Thus it would seem that Xerophasrna might be allied to Allo-perdita, but this is not necessarily the case.1 The canty or thin hair on the legs of Xerophasrna might suggest that)t was parasitic, but I feel confident that this is not the case. Species •Robertson (1922, Psyche, p. 159) thinks that in Perdita the original first and seco nd intercubiti .or transverse cubitals have united, and according to this view they are partly separated in Xere>-pha.,rna, the sma ll cell being the !!Cnuine seco nd ouhital. 4 AM ERI CAN MUSEUJVl NOV IT ATES [No. 66 of Perdita with thinly hair ed legs can, neverth ele , carry very large loads of p llen. Perdita minima, new pec1e Figure 4 9 .-Length about or not qui te 3 mm . Head and thorax shining rufotestaceous, without dark marking , except that the metat horax is dark brown dorsally; scape pal e reddish , flagelJum dark brown; legs brown, pallid basalJy. Wings hyaline; stigma dilut e sepia ; nervur es pale bu t not colorless. Abdomen highly polished, dark red-brown above and below, without band s. H e:J.d norm al, circular seen from the front, face very wide, cheek unar med; clypeus rather high . Th e following features were seen und er the compound microscope : sides of face coarsely reti_culate, the small areas tra nsversely wrinkl ed, front very finely ret iculat e; eyes with green and pink-ish tints; hair of head and thorax very sca nt y, mainly on lower part of mesopleura; marginal cell very shor t, the . ub st igmata l part almost or qui te twi_pe as long as post-st igmat al; second subm arginal celJ mall , triangular, slightl y pet iolate above, the recurr ent nervur e meet ing the intercubi ta ls; abdom en very minut ely transversely lineolate; pygidi al plate narrow, very minut ely ret iculate , with a beaded effect; claws without a subap ical toot h. Th e abdom en is not uniforml y dark ened, and the dark color appears to depend largely upon its content s. Tempe, Arizona ; Jul y 30-A ugust 6, 1917; (J. Bequaer t). Taken at flowers of E up horbici serpy llifo lia Persoon. Typ e in American Mu seum, one specimen in the author 's collect ion, and one will be sent to U. S. Nat. Mu eum. Oth ers were col-lected by Prof essor Bradl ey at the same t ime and arc in the collect ion at Corn ell . University . This minut e reddi sh Perdita is very distinct; it reminds us of P. (Perditella) larre;;e Cockerell from New Mexico, which has similar vena-tion, but is larger and the cheeks are armed. P. larre;;e visits Covillea. P. minima is not the mallest known bee, as Trigona duckei Frie se, from Brazil, is only 2 mm. long. AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES FRANKE. LUTZ, Editor f ssued, as occasion requires, for the publication of preliminary an-nouncements, descriptions of new forms, and similar matters . The articles are numbered serially but paged independently. An index will be provided for each 300 (ap-proximately) pages. 

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Two Nocturnal Bees and a Minute Perdita

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