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AS ity » M, Pee sh, eth Tak ye ye SUPPLEMENT TO THE AUSTRALIAN ZOOLocIsT, Vol. 8, Part 9. Issued Nov. 12, 1937. re = ae Y , De EAE, AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGIST Issued by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Vol. 8.—1934-7. WITH NINETEEN PLATES, And Numerous Text-figures. Sydney: Printed and Published for the Society by The Sydney and Melbourne Publishing Co., Pty., Ltd., Sydney. London: Wheldon & Wesley, Ltd., 2, 3, and 4 Arthur Street, New Oxford Street, W.O.2. Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by poset as a periodical. SOLD BY THE SOCIETY. INDEX TO VOLUME VIII. Allan, Joyce, Sea Slugs, Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, 261. Allen, Glover M., A. Fruit Bat, Dobsonia, New to Australia, 151. Apheilocheirus, A New Species of, from Australia, by Robert L. Usinger, 341. Avian Embryo, The Development of, by Garnet Halloran, 39. Australian Bats, Notes on the Habits of, by A. J. Marshall, 81. Bryozoa, Notes on Recent, by Leo W. Stach, 140. Cowries, by Tom Iredale, 96. Diptera, New Species of, by J. R. Malloch, 87. Bats, Six New, from the Australasian Region, by E. L. Troughton, 274. Bees of Australia, The, by T. D. A. Cockerell, 2. Bird of Providence, The Doom of the, by Gilbert Whitley, 42. Brazenor, C. W., Notes on the Yellow-bellied Flying Phalanger, 54. Bryozoa, The Species of Chiastosella, by Leo W. Stach, 334. Bryozoan, A New Cyclostomatous, by Leo W. Stach, 143. Carter, H. J. & HE. H. Zeck, New Species of Dryopidae, 79, 156. Cockerell, T. D. A., The Bees of AuStralia, 2. Cowries, Australian, by Tom Iredale, 96. Devil Ray, The Australian, by Gilbert P. Whitley, 164. Diptera, Australian, New Species, by J. R. Malloch, 87. Dryopidae, New Species of, by H. J. Carter and E. H. Zeck, 79, 156. Fish Paintings, George Raper’s, by Gilbert Whitley, 150. Fleay, David, Observations on the Birth of a Wallaby, 153. Freshwater Mussels of Australia, The, by Tom Iredale, 57. Fruit Bat, Dobsonia, New to Australia, by Glover M. Allen, 151. Halloran, Garnet, The Development of the Avian Embryo, 39. Hardy, G. H., Notes on Sarcophagid Flies, 50. Ichthyological Genotypes, by Gilbert Whitley, 136, 189. © Iredale, Tom, A Basic List of the Land Molluscs of Australia, 287. —_—__—_————., Australian Cowries, 96. , Mollusca of Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, 232. , The Freshwater Mussels of Australia, 57. Land Molluscs of Australia, A Basic List, by Tom Iredale, 287. Lantern Fish, A New Species of, from New Zealand, by Gilbert Whitley, 160. Le Souef, A. S., The Rate of Growth in Reptiles, 55. (See Troughton & Le Souef.) Livingstone, A. A., Echinodermata of Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, 267. MacPherson, John, The Red-striped Spider, 145. McNeill, F. A., Crustacea of Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, 263. Malloch, J. R., New Species of Australian Diptera, 87. Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs (Composite paper), 199. Mollusca, A Basic List of the Land, by Tom Iredale, 287. Obituary, Robin John Tillyard, 343. Opossum, Carnivorous Habits of the Brush-tailed, 149. Phalanger, Notes on the Yellow-bellied, by C. W. Brazenor, 54. Rules, New, 346. Rat, Eastern Swamp, New Forms of The, by E. L. Troughton, 281. Reptiles, The Rate of Growth in, by A. S. Le Souef, 55. Reviews, 152, 344. Stach, Leo W., Notes on Recent Australian Bryozoa, 140. eee , The Species of Chiastosella, 334. —_——_—., A New Cyclostomatous Bryozoan, 143. Sarcophagid Flies, Notes on, by G. H. Hardy, 50. . Spider, The Red-striped, by John MacPherson, 145. Tillyard, Robin John, Obituary, 348. Troughton, E. L., New Forms of the Eastern Swamp Rat, 281. —_________.. Six New Bats from the Australasian Region, 274. , and A. S. Le Souef, Two New Tree Kangaroos from Papua, 193. Usinger, Robert L., A New Species of Aphelocheirus from Australia, 341. Wallaby, Observations on the Birth of A, by David Fleay, 153. Whitley, Gilbert, A New Species of Lantern Fish from New Zealand, 160. eee —, George Raper’s Fish Paintings, 150. = ichifvolocical Genet yes, 136.060: —____ —, Middleton and, Elizabeth Reefs, 199: , The Australian Devil Ray, 164. , The Doom of the Bird of Providence, 42. Zeck, E. H. (See Carter & Zeck). THE AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGIST Issued by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Edited by A. F. BASSET HULL, O.F.A.0.U., F.B.Z,8. Vol. 8—Part 1 \ “ ao Sydney, May 9, 1934. (Price, 4/6) All communications to be addressed to the Hon. Secretary, Box 2399 M.M., General Post Office, Sydney. Sydney: Sydney and Melbourne Publishing Co., Ltd., 29 Alberta St. London: Wheldon & Wesley, Ltd., 2, 3, and 4 Arthur Street, New Oxford Street, W.0.2. Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical. - Royal Zoclogical Society ee New Sou k Established 1879. : . _ _REGISTERED UNDER THE COMPANIES ACT, 1899 (1917). 5 Patron: His Excellency Sir Philip Woolcott Game, G.B.E., K.C.B., D.S.O. COUNCIL, 1933-1934. President: Ernest J. Bryce, F.R.GS. Vice-Presidents: Neville W. Cayley, F.R.Z.S., Tom Iredale, F.R.ZS., T. C. Roughley, F.R.Z.S., and Ellis Le G. Troughton. — Members: Clifford Coles, C.M.Z.S. J. R. Kinghorn, C.M.ZS. Professor W. J. Dakin. Anthony Musgrave, F.R.Z.S., F.E. Ss. - E. A. D’Ombrain, M.B., Ch.M. E. F. Pollock, J.P., F.R.G:S. 4 W. W. Froggatt, FRZ. S. G. A. Waterhouse, D.Sc., B.E., F.ES. : Aubrey Halloran, B.A., LL.B. F.R.ZS. Officers: < Hon. Secretary and Editor: A. F. Basset Hull, C.F.A.0.U., FRZS. Assistant Hon. Secretary: Keith A. Hindwood. Hon. Treasurer: Phillip Shipway. Hon. Librarian: A. S. Le Souef, C.M.ZS. Hon. Auditor: R. J. Stiffe, A.C.A. (Aust.). OFFICERS OF SECTIONS: : i Avicultural Section. Marine Zoological Section. Chairman: Frank Buckle. Chairman: Melbourne Ward. Hon. Secretary: G. A. Duncan. Hon. Secretary: Miss G. Charter Smith. Budgerigar Club. . : f Chairman: Neville W. Cayley. ; Mihai ke ae opie Hon. Secretaries: E. W. Jones and Chairman: K. A. Hindwood. T. McSwiggan. Hon. Secretary: Robert Emerson. “THE AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGIST.” The Council of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales has decided that, commencing with this Volume (VIII.), “The Australian Zoologist” ‘shall be published at imtervals, as material and funds permit. The size of the page will be reduced to agree with that of the “Records of the Australian Museum,” but this will be effected by reducing the margin and not the text. The Society’s Annual Report and Balance Sheet, Re- ports of the Sections, and other routine matters, hitherto included in this journal, will be published in octavo form, and entitled, “Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales”; such Proceedings to be issued in the month of August in each year, and supplied to all members and associate members without extra charge. Where avail- able, nature notes and short popular papers on subjects relating to Australian zoology will be included in the Pro- ceedings. THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. By T. D. A. CocKERELL. (Continued from vol vii., part iv., p. 324.) HatictTipaE subfamily SPHECODINAE. Inquiline or parasitic bees, the females without the caudal furrow of Halictus. In most species the abdomen is red, but some are entirely black. The basal nervure is strongly arched, as in Halictus. Tongue in our species very short. Sphecodes profugus Cockerell. Female about 9 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen dark chestnut red, black at apex; head large, broader than long; wings moderately dusky, stigma and nervures very dark brown. Male about 7 mm. long, much less bulky, abdomen lighter red; flagellum robust and long, the joints nodose beneath. Mackay, Queensland (Turner). Type in British Museum. Allied to a species of New Guinea (S. biroi Friese). S. profugus has been taken as far south as Brisbane (Hacker). COLLETIDAE. The typical genus, Colletes, reaches southern South America and South Africa, but is not present in Australia. Vachal in 1909 proposed a sub- family, Diphaglossinae, having for its type the South American genus, Diphaglossa Spinola. He recognised the existence of genera of this group in Australia and South America, and it may now be added that there are genera in South Africa. The ancestral or basic type of this subfamily has three cubital (submarginal) cells, but genera have evolved which possess only two. Such are Pasiphaé Spinola in South America, Scrapter Lepeletier and Serville in South Africa, and Notocolletes, Euryglossidia and Andrenopsis in Australia. (A.) Genera with two cubital cells.* Paracolletes-like bees, with hairy head and thorax; marginal cell obtuse or truncate at end; stigma small; face of male yellow. ; : Andrenopsis Cockerell. Paracolletes- like hairy bees: male flagellum very ‘Jong and slender; head and thorax black, abdomen green; male face not yellow, but densely covered with appressed hair; legs and venter of abdomen greatly modified; stigma long and narrow; marginal cell ending rather obtusely. .. .. . .. Notocolletes.Cockerell. More Euryglossa- -like bees, “rather slender and often small; marginal cell narrow or pointed at end; stigma large... ..... Euryglossidia Cockerell. By some mischance, in the table in Australian Zoologist, vi., p. 148, Euryglossina is printed in place of Euryglossidia. In Genera Insectorum, 1923, Meade-Waldo includes Euryglossidia in Prosopidinae, separating it from Euryglossa in his table by the cubital cells being both long, subequal, and the baSal nervure gently arched. He gives an excellent coloured figure of E. rectangulata, which is;the genotype. This species resembles in ap- pearance the South African Scrapter semirufa Cockerell, and shows no material difference in the venation and general structure of the body, ex- * Paracolletes abnormis Ckll. sometimes has only two cubital cells, and the type of P. vitrifrons Sm. has only two cubitals. COCKERELL. 3 ‘cept that the metathorax is of a different type. It appears to be a fact that Scrapter and Euryglossidia, inhabiting South Africa and Australia, re- spectively, are very closely related, and must have had a common origin from a bee of the same general type. I interpret this as indicating that this type of bee was once widespread over the world, but now remains only in certain southern regions. ANDRENOPSIs Cockerell. The genus was originally based (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., xxxi., 1905, p. 363) on a male A. flavorufus in the British Museum, labelled “Australia.” Andrenopsis flavorufus Cockerell. Male about 10.5 mm. long; mandibles (except apex), labrum, clypeus and supraclypeal area yellow; scape yellow suffused with red; hind margins of abdominal tergites broadly ferruginous; tarsi light yellow. The Aus- tralian Museum has it from Sydney, collected by C. Gibbons. Andrenopsis velutinus Cockerell. Kojarena, W.A. (Nicholson). Female about 6 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen black and chestnut red. (Rec. Austr. Mus., xvii., D212). Andrenopsis wilsoni Rayment. Bogong High Plains (5,000 ft.), Victoria (F. E. Wilson). (Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, xliii., 1930, p. 51). Mr. Rayment kindly sent me this insect for examination, and I noted: Male about 8 mm. long; mandibles bidentate; clypeus mainly honey colour, keeled; supraclypeal area elevated, shining; scape light. yellowish ferruginous; basal nervure meeting the oblique ner- vulus; second cubital cell long, receiving first recurrent nervure far from base. EuryGLossip1a Cockerell. Euryglossidia australiensis (Dalla Torre). Described by Smith as Scrapter bicolor, from a specimen in the collec- tion of Sir John Lubbock. The specific name had been used by Lepeletier and Serville for an African species. Head and thorax black: abdomen ' ferruginous, with the base fuscous, and tergites 2 to 4 with lateral fuscous spots; tibiae and tarsi ferruginous. Transferred to Euryglossidia by Meade- Waldo. Euryglossidia cyanescens Cockerell. Kojarena, W.A. (Nicholson). Female about 5.5 mm. long; head and thorax black; abdomen with first three segments very bright ferruginous red, with a faint purple lustre, the second tergite with an oval black spot on each side; remaining tergites dark with a strong bluish or blue-green lustre, the apical tuft of hair black. Allied to E. simillima, but known by the red tibiae. Type in Australian Museum. Euryglossidia eraduensis Cockerell. Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Female about 9 mm. long, or rather less; dark green, the clypeus black, and the entirely dull mesothorax almost black; spur of anterior tibia with a broad lateral translucent plate, and beyond that four sharp lateral spines. Type in Australian Museum. Euryglossidia ichneumonoides (Cockerell). W. Australia. Male about 7 mm. long, looking like a small ichneumonid; head and thorax black, legs and abdomen yellowish ferruginous; wings hyaline. The abdomen has a purple lustre. Type in British Museum. 4 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Euryglossidia mastersi Cockerell. King George’s Sound, W.A. (Geo. Masters). Female 9 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen chestnut red, with a purple lustre; wings reddish hyaline. Very near E. purpurascens, but clypeus convex, not flat- tened on disc; scutellum more closely punctured, with no median de- pression; anterior tibiae red; nervures much paler; stigma shorter. Type in Australian Museum. Euryglossidia nigrescens Cockerell. Geraldton and Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Male nearly 6 mm. long, very slender, with narrow abdomen and extremely long antennae; head and thorax black; abdomen very dark brown, faintly greenish, the hind margins of tergites 2 to 4 more or less pallid; wings hyaline. Female more robust; face broad, with conspicuous white hair at sides; antennae short, the flagellum clear ferruginous beneath except at end; apex of abdomen with dark fuscous hair. Type in Australian Museum. Euryglossidia purpurascens Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (R. E. Turner). Male about 8.5 mm. long; black, the abdomen dark rich chestnut red, suffused with purple, the basal segment dark; antennae black, extremely long. Female about 9 mm. long, with short antennae; sides of second tergite with a large dark spot. Distin- guished from E. ichneumonoides by the brownish wings, and from E. rect- angulata by the fuscous (instead of ferruginous) nervures. Type in British Museum. Euryglossidia rectangulata Cockerell. Victoria (French). Female about 8 mm. long; head and thorax black, quite hairy; abdomen very bright chestnut red, with a large round black spot on each side of second tergite; femora black, with the Knees ferrugin- ous; tibiae and, tarsi ferruginous, more or less suffused with dusky; tegulae ferruginous; wings pale reddish. Male » ich more slender, the abdomen claviform, slender basally, variably suffu. 4 with black, and with a faint purple lustre; clypeus covered with white hair. Type in British Museum. Euryglossidia simillima (Smith). Swan River, W.A. Female with the aspect of a Sphecodes; head and thorax black, abdomen ferruginous; flagellum fulvous beneath; wings hyaline. The two last tergites are blue-black, the apex with black pubescence. Transferred to Euryglossidia by Meade-Waldo. Type in British Museum. Euryglossidia viridescens Cockerell. Geraldton, W.A. (Nicholson). Female about 6.5 mm. long; head and thorax black, the very large dullish area of metathorax slightly greenish; abdomen ferruginous, with fourth tergite and beyond dark olive green, and the red tergites with a transverse dusky subapical band; sides of second tergite with a large oval black spot; apical tuft brown. Type in Australian Museum. The black spots at sides of second tergite are equally evident in the species of the African genus Scrapter which have a red abdomen; for example, S. rufiventris (Friese). NOTOCOLLETES Cockerell. Notocolletes heterodoxus Cockerell. “Gawter, D.S. Austr.,” which may mean Gawler Range. Male nearly 11 mm. long; head and thorax black; abdomen dark dull blue-green; head, COCKERELL. 5 thorax and abdomen with long erect very pale ochreous-tinted hair, not forming bands on abdomen; appressed hair of face shining like a plate of polished silver in certain lights: hind margin of fifth sternite elevated and greatly thickened in middle; sixth sternite with a great thickened elevation. Type in British Museum. Among the genera with three cubital cells, this most resembles Goniocolletes, which also has greatly modified legs in the malé. There is a curious resemblance between Notocolletes and the South African Parapolyglossa Brauns, but as the details of the greatly modified legs differ conspicuously in the two genera, I suppose the modifications to have arisen independently, yet also as the expression of a tendency latent in the whole group, and in that sense ancestral. (B.) Genera with three cubital cells. The genera of this series are greatly in need of revision, which must be based on structural studies of both sexes of many species. F. Smith re- cognised a series of genera, which he named Anthoglossa, Paracolletes, Leioproctus, Dasycolletes, Lamprocolletes, Stenotritus and Gastropsis (Oestropsis, preoccupied). In 1905 I united the second, third, fourth and fifth under the name Paracolletes, finding that the supposed generic char- acters did not hold in a long series of species. Anthoglossa is also prac- tically confluent with Paracolletes, though it represents a rather distinct group. In 1929 (Mem. Queens. Mus., p. 311) I suggested the possibility of restoring Leioproctus (to include Lamprocolietes) for the larger part of the present Paracolletes, characterised by the well developed stigma. I gave lists of species which would then fall in Paracolletes and Leioproctus. Lamprocolletes. has the third cubital cell much less elongated than in Leioproctus proper, receiving the second reeurrent nervure very near the end. ‘This difference can hardly be considered generic. The type of Leioproctus is from New Zealand, but similar species occur in Australia. In the present paper, I continue to use Paracoiletes in the broad sense, Jeaving it to some future Australian student to produce a Sound generic re- vision which we can all adopt. Stenotritus and Gastropsis were not recognised as Diphaglossine or Colletid. As I stated in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., March, 1929, p. 358, there can now be no doubt that Gastropsis consists of males of Stenotritus. Smith placed Stenotritus after Andrena, remarking that he could not describe the tongue, as some one had extracted it from the type. The genus consists (in the female) of robust Andrena-like bees, the principal characters described by Smith being in the legs: “The inner spine at the apex of the posterior tibiae, as well as the single one at the apex of the anterior and intermediate pairs, toothed like a comb, and very long, bent and acute at the apex; the posterior legs furnished with a floccus and scopa.” The second recurrent nervure was described as reaching the third cubital cell in the middle. Gastropsis, based on a male, was noteworthy for the conical abdomen, giving the insect the appearance of a bot-fly. In 1904 (Canad. Entomologist, p. 304) I discussed Gastropsis, remarking on the broad second cubital cell and obsolete stigma (characters also of Anthoglossa plumata) ; third antennal joint very long; face narrow, with large eyes; area of meta- thorax very long and narrow; abdomen very hairy, rather tapering, with two terminal spines, which are sometimes folded back, and then not easily seen. The basal nervure falls far short of the nervulus. I remarked on the general resemblance to the Peruvian Megacilissa vestita Smith, but quite erroneously supposed the genus to be related to Meliturga, which resembles it in the abdominal spines of the male, in the eyes (though in meliturga male they converge above) and the long third antennal joint. <6 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. The genera may be divided into three tribes, Stenotritini, Phena- colletini and Paracolletini. STENOTRITINI. Stenotritus Smith. Stenotritus elegans Smith. Sydney, N.S.W. The type of the genus. Head and thorax black, abdomen greenish; hair at apex of abdomen rufo-fulvous. Last antennal joint of female compressed, so as to appear pointed from one direction, rounded from another. Area of metathorax produced apically, so as to form a broad band passing down metathorax. A female in bad condition, from Tennant’s Creek, Central Australia (Field) shows olive green tints on the mesothorax in front, and the first recurrent nervure joins second cubital cell a little before the middle, instead of a little beyond it as in type S. elegans. For the present this form is regarded as a variety of S. elegans, but good material might show it to be a distinct species. Stenotritus elegantior Cockerell. Queensland, probably collected by Turner. Female about 16 mm. long; similar to S. elegans, but head and thorax above metallic, with rich purple and green tints; hair of face and front fulvous, of cheeks white, contrast- ing; scape entirely bright ferruginous. Stenotritus glauerti (Rayment). Yorkrakine, W.A. Female 21 mm. long; peacock green, with peacock- blue about the head; scape royal-blue; no fringe on abdominal tergites. Stenotritus nigrescens (Friese). Central Australia, collected by the famous botanist, v. Muller. Male 15 mm. long, like S. pubescens, but thorax with a broad black transverse band; tergites 2 to 5 blackish-brown haired; legs entirely blackish-brown. Friese remarks on its great resemblance to Meliturga clavicornis. Stenotritus pubescens (Smith). Champion Bay, W.A. (H. Du Boulay) and S. Australia. The type of Gastropsis. Black, densely clothed with ochraceous pubescence; legs pale ferruginous, the middle femora behind, and the hind femora, dark fuscous or black; abdomen submetallic. Stenotritus pubescens splendidus (Rayment). Geraldton, W.A. Male 14.5 mm. long; antennae entirely pale ferrugin- ous; abdomen broader, the tergites and thorax completely hidden under excesSively dense pale greenish-buff hair; legs brown. i Stenotritus smaragdinus Smith. Champion Bay, W.A. (H. Du Boulay). Like a very large, bright green Andrena. Female with third antennal joint very long; mesothorax with much white plumose hair; area of metathorax reduced to a very minute basal nearly equilateral triangle (thus very different from that of S. elegans) ; second cubital cell extremely broad. Type in British Museum. Subgenus MELiTRIsus Rayment. This includes species in which the large eyes of the males converge above. For a full description see Entomologist, January, 1906, p. 15. Ray- ment, in Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 1930, p. 61, gives S. victoriae as the type of the genus, but in the previous volume, p. 218, issued earlier in the same year, he cites M. greavesi, and this must hold. He gives a good plate show- ing M. greavesi and various details of its structure. COCKERELL. 7 Stenotritus (Melitribus) greavesi (Rayment). Bungulla, W.A., on flowers of Callistemon (T. Greaves). Male about 16 mm. long: “the white hair of the metathorax and the first and second abdominal segments is combined as a wide median band across the black shining body, and is suggestive of Megachile lucidiventris.” Stenotritus (Melitribus) victoriae (CocKerell) . South Australia and Victoria. Type in British Museum. Male about 15.5 mm. long; black, shining, and punctured; face very narrow, covered with long light yellow hair; anterior margin of clypeus with two shining dentiform processes; area of metathorax finely granular, triangular, with all the angles greatly produced and acute; hair of thorax yellowish white, except on hind part of mesothorax and scutellum, where it is black or fuscous; apical plate of abdomen truncate. A supposed variety from W. Australia (Froggatt) has the abdomen and anterior part of mesothorax with a greenish lustre; mesothorax with much black hair, except on the anterior third, where it abruptly changes to yellowish white. Stenotritus (Melitribus) victoriae rufocollaris (Cockerell) . Mallee, V. (Davey). Male about 14 mm. long; face and front covered with bright ferruginous hair; first three antennal joints clear ferruginous; mesothorax and scutellum somewhat metallic; anterior part of mesothorax with bright fox-red hair, abruptly separated from the black of the hinder part. Subgenus Ctenocollefes Cockerell. Female large; anterior and middle tibial spurs with very long spines, on anterior spurs well spaced (not small and crowded as in S. elegans) ; stigma practically obsolete; basal nervure falling far short of nervulus; second cubital cell quadrate, extremely broad, much broader than high, receiving first recurrent nervure toward the base. (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., March, 1929, p. 358.). Stenotritus (Ctenocolletes) nicholsoni Cockerell. Kojarena, W.A. Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Female about 20 mm. long; black, quite without metallic tints; face covered with white hair; thorax densely covered with long hair, clear white on meso- pleura and tubercles, on dorsum very pale ochreous, with two transverse black bands; tergites 2 to 4 with fulvous bands; apex of abdomen with copper-red hair. The two transverse bands on thorax resemble those of Caupolicana hirsuta Spinola, from Chile. PHENACOLLETINI. PHENACOLLETES Cockerell. Bees closely resembling wasps allied to Tachytes; pubescence very short and like that of a wasp, the plumosity only visible under the compound microscope; abdomen free from hair, except a very fine pruinosity, and shaped like that of a Tachytes or Bembicid; stigma small and narrow; first cubital cell, on cubital neryure, at least as long as the other two com- bined; second cubital cell almost square, receiving first recurrent nervure at end of its first third; basal nervure falling slightly basad of nervulus. Phenacolletes mimus Cockerell. Turtle Bay. N.W. Australia (J. J. Walker). Male about 14 mm. long; black, with the large scutellum red varying to black; labrum with a shining elevated C.; face broad, the eyes practically parallel, slightly diverging be- 3 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. low; flagellum thick, the middle joints broader than long; area of meta- thorax large, shining, with a deep basal pit. PARACOLLETINI. Cladocerapis Cockerell. Allied to Paracolletes, but male antennae with joints of flagellum hav- ing processes directed forward, on upper side, and large branches bearing little filament-like processes, often forked, on under side; area of meta- thorax smooth and shining, with an obscure transverse ridge; basal nervure meeting nervulus; first recurrent nervure joining middle of second cubital cell. Cladocerapis bipectinatus (Smith). Sydney, N.S.W. Male black, shining; wings hyaline; legs obscurely testacéous; abdomen obscurely metallic. Hacker records it from Queens- land (Caloundra and Bribie Island). TRICHOCOLLETES Cockerell. Allied to Paracolletes, but with conspicuously hairy eyes. The females collect pollen from Daviesia. Trichocolletes daviesiae Rayment. Heathmont, V., visiting Daviesia (Rayment). Hair of face very dense, reddish-gold; abdominal bands glistening golden; antennae black, with red scape. Trichocolletes dowerinensis Rayment. Dowerin, W.A., visiting Daviesia (Rayment). A narrow species; abdomen coarsely punctured, tergites with pallid margins and long black hair, except on first two tergites; where it is dark fulvous; clypeus and labrum fulvous. Trichocolletes nigroclypeatus Rayment. Daylesford, Victoria, visiting Daviesia (Rayment). Female about 12.3 mm. long; clypeus naked, with a tuft of hair at each side. The male is hard to separate from 7. venustus, but the genitalia are different. Trichocolletes tenuiculus Rayment. Canowindra, N.S.W. (M. Dwyer). Male about 12 mm. long, female 14 mm.; scape blackish; a tuft of hair in middle of clypeus; abdominal bands very dull and narrow. The tibiae are ferruginous. Males of this and T. daviesiae visit Hardenbergia. Trichocolletes venustus (Smith). Lower Plenty, S.A. Female black, the abdomen with a silky sige. face densely clothed with long pale golden hair; scape red; tibiae red; margins of tergites with narrow golden bands, thinly hairy. It is also Known from Queensland; a specimen from Hobart, Tasmania, lacks the first intercubitus on the right side. Rayment records it from Western Australia. It visits Daviesia. Rayment (Victorian Naturalist, December, 1929) figures the head and genitalia of 7. venustus and the head of T. nigroclypeatus. GONIOCOLLETES Cockerell. Paracolletes-like bees, with the male legs excessively modified; anterior tarsi with the basitarsus narrow, pale and fiat, more than twice as long as the rest of the tarsus; middle femora with the lower half beneath excavated, as though a large piece had been bitten out, the basal end of the excavation COCKERELL. 9 furnished with a large tooth; hind tibiae strongly bent, with only one spur visible, that small and pale; hind basitarsi with a tooth-like prominence beneath. The female is not known, but Paracolletes ruficornis (Smith) shows several points of similarity. Goniocolletes morsus Cockerell. New South Wales. Type in American Museum of Natural History. Male about 13 mm. long; black, clothed with long. yellow hair, dense and golden on the face; face broad; lower edge of clypeus broadly whitish; scape black, flagellum red, blackish above at base; wings yellowish; tarsi pellucid yellowish; very broad margins of tergites pellucid shining testace- ous. The Australian Museum has it from S. Australia. It is the type of the genus. Dasycolletes curvipes Friese is a synonym. Goniocolletes pallidus Cockerell. Hermannsburg, Central Australia (H. J. Hillier). Type in British Museum. Male about 11.5 mm. long; abdomen light ferruginous, hind margins of tergites broadly hyaline; flagellum dusky red, almost black above. NoDOCOLLETES Rayment, Rayment (Jour. Roy. Soc. W. Australia, xvii., p. 164) has proposed this genus to include those species of Paracolletes (in the broad sense) which have a dentate process on the postscutellum. The stigma is inconspicuous. I have catalogued the species below under Paracolletes; they are the fol- lowing :— N. dentatus Rayment (type of genus), N. subdentatus Rayment, N. diodontus (Ckll.), N. vigilans (Smith), as listed by Rayment. The post- scutellum has a stout sharp spine in Paracolletes phanerodontus Ckll., and in P. subvigilans Ckll. it has a very prominent obtuse tubercle, which is not bifid. P. sexmaculatus Ckll. has a mammiform median tubercle on post- scutellum. P. microdontus CkKll. has a small but distinct tubercle on post- scutellum. ANTHOGLOsSa Smith. Smith based this genus on A. plumata; six species are listed in Hacker’s Catalogue. A. plumata (female) is a comparatively large bee, with the second cubital cell extremely broad, not contracted above; pygidial plate large; clypeus densely punctured; mandibles elbowed outward; abdomen with hair-bands. Smith later added A. sericea (female), which has the second cubital cell greatly contracted above; clypeus shining, with widely separated punc- tures; mandibles ordinary; hind margins of tergites white, without hair- bands. é The male in the British Museum ascribed to A. plumata has the same venation as the female, but the hind margins of tergites white as in A. sericea. It has the face densely covered with long bright orange-red hair, and the scape and hind tibiae and tarsi red. It has become increasingly difficult to recognise Anthoglossa as a genus, but when the genera are revised, it may be found to stand, with a modified definition. Anthoglossa aureotincta Cockerell. Perth (H. W. J. Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 13 mm. long; closely allied to A. sericea, but differing by the antennae (which are black, the flagellum obscurely brownish beneath), dark brown tegulae, 10 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. black legs and pale chocolate coloured apical tuft of abdomen. The hind margins of first four tergites are pale orange-golden. Anthoglossa cygni Cockerell. Swan River. Type in British Museum. Female about 15.5 mm. long; abdomen without bands; hair on fifth and apical tergites brown-black. Anthoglossa dives Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Rowland Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 16 mm. long; male 16 mm., the face densely covered with very bright golden-fulvous hair. Distinguished (female) from A. aureotincta by being larger, with largely red legs. Both are separated from A. hackeri by the golden band on first tergite. Anthoglossa hackeri Cockerell. Mt. Tambourine, Q@. (Hacker).. Female about 14 mm. long, structurally like A. aureotincta, but differing by the absence of a band on first tergite, dark hair of upper part of head, and dusky wings. Antennae and legs black. : Anthoglossa plumata Smith. W. Australia. Type in British Museum. Anthoglossa sericea Smith. Described from a female in the collection of Sir John Lubbock. My account above is based on the specimen in the British Museum. Smith’s description includes the following items: Sides of the face with a line of snow-white pubescence, on the vertex it is slightly fuscous; anterior margin of the clypeus and the mandibles rufo-piceous, the tips of the latter black; flagellum fulvous beneath; tibiae and tarsi rufo-piceous; tegulae pale testaceous; wings subhyaline; abdomen covered with a short changeable reddish pile, apical margins of the tergites narrowly testaceous; fifth ter- gite fringed with fulvous pubescence, as well as the sides of sixth, the segment itself being rufo-testaceous. PARACOLLETES Smith. In Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., xxxi. (1905), pp. 344-349, I have given a table based on Smith’s types in the British Museum, I concluded that the venational characters supposed to distinguish several genera did not hold good. The bees look like Colletes or Andrena. The hind spur of hind tibia may be pectinate with rather numerous fine long teeth, as in P. (or Dasy- colletes) rubellus; or may be minutely ciliate, at first glance appearing simple, aS in P, (or Dasycolletes) metallicus. ‘These differences in the spur parallel those found in Halictus. In the following table I have included species of Trichocolletes and Anthoglossa. 1. Eyes hairy; hind margins of abdominal tergites pallid; moe with face covered with golden hair, and scape clear red; females with white hair on face, pale fulvous on vertex; first cubital cell short as in Anthoglossa .. .. .. .. Trichocolletes venustus (Smith). (The eyes also show hair in P. thornleighensis Ckll.) Eyes not hairy (excepting in P. thornleighensis) .. . De 2. Male legs greatly deformed; middle femora with a large tooth below, hind tibiae strongly bent; face covered with golden hair; scape blackis#but; facelluni-redi beneath. 22% 5. .6ee eee ee eee .. ..» Goniocolletes morsus Ckll. (See also G. pallidus Cku.). Made legs not thus deformed . pha as Cec akl aan an ae at eta ee oF COCKERELL. 11 First cubital cell below relatively short, not or hardly as long as 2 plus 3; second cubital broad; abdomen with broad golden tegumentary bands... 4. (Very large, about 17 mm. long, with bright ‘red moss- like hair on thorax above ...: . Jun meacineus, CK.) First cubital cell longer, often much longer than 2 plus 3. 5 Face with white hair; female (Queensland) .. Anthoglossa hackeri Ckll. Face with bright orange hair; last antennal joint broad and flat; male CW. Australia): 2... .. .. Anthoglossa dives Ckll. (By analogy with T. venustus, these might be Sexes of one species, but hackeri has basal nervure falling conspicuously short of nervulus, while in dives it meets nervulus.) The following supplementary table of Anthoglossa will be useful: Larger; second cubital cell extremely broad, not contracted above; clypeus densely punctured; abdomen with hair-bands (female). Male with face covered with bright orange red hair; scape red; hind margins of tergites white .. .. .. ..... .. A. plumata Smith. _Abdomen of female without hair bands .. .. ........ 1. Second cubital cell greatly contracted above: clypeus shining, with widely separated punctures; mandibles ordinary (strongly elbowed outward in female plumata); hind mates of abdominal tergites WL ye). , A. sericea Smith. Differs by having hair on fifth ‘and ‘apical. hermits prown- black; female about 15.5 mm. long (Swan R.) .. . Se A. cygni Ckil. (See also A. aureotincta Ckll., female about 13 mm. long: and Para- colletes marginatus Smith | appears to be allied.) Black species, with hind margins of tergites evidently discolored. (See also P. oa Ci Rr cree See! 3 Ur Been eae te 6. Otherwise .. .. Leen Sear me enane tine Sh a eC kal ear ile Stigma subobsolete - BE BeREE? re, WN GRE eB el ee an RE a le Stigma well developed .. .. 8. Abdomen with narrow pale eolden bands: hind tibiae and tarsi of male red; face of male with golden hair, of female with white; first cubital cell relatively short, suggesting Anthoglossa; third cubital long, produced .. Paracolletes (or Anthoglossa) marginatus Smith. (Here also may be sought: Scape swollen, clear red; flagellum short and thick; face densely covered with red-gold hairs P. (or A.) chrysostomus CkIl. Caudal fibria fulvous; abdominal bands white; clypeus highly polished, with few punctures ..........P. (or A.) marginatus lucidus Ckll. P. m. lucidus differs from a sericea Sm. by the dark tegulae, and absence of “short changeable reddish pile’ covering abdomen; but it agrees with sericea in the fulvous caudal tuft, and smooth shin- ing clypeus with reddish margin.) : Abdomen with broad pale golden tegumentary bands; third cubital cell not elongated; male, the long flagellum red beneath ye P. rebellis CkIL. Hair of head and thorax ‘bright ‘fox- red: Shem clear red; hind tibiae (female) with an extremely large and broad pale fulvous scopa .. 3 . waterhousei Ckll. Hair of head and thorax “not thus bright, or not red; smaller SPECIES «2% 2 Second cubital cell ‘parallel- -sided: female flagellum very ‘short SEU a 5 Pat ink Mae eee ce SSE eee OR C7 St aE tee ls a _. helichrysi. Ckll. 12 10. AT: 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Second cubital cell narrowed above .. ......... Petre 10. Third cubital cell much elongated; sides oF front above finely punc- tured, not polished .. .. .. .. see as Stgtttetus CAL. (An allied but smaller species. is P. nomioeformis Ckll.) Third cubital cell little elongated; sides of front above smooth and polished .. .. ee mereiell Pie Ck. Abdomen red, or at least in ‘large part NEON iar ue 12. Abdomen not TOG eee eas Sh AR MATa a TALL 20. Stigma sSubobsolete; mostly larger SPECIES 4 Uh. were lice ie 13. Stigma well developed .. .. .. . Aer a 15. Clypeus shining black; Tanaiples: ee leek! . end; female (W. Australia) .. .. . Wa ten. eRe emis (ell: Clypeus more or less yellow: males ~ Be aaa Fear teal a RSL a bas 14. Yellow on a trilobed; scape black .. . Pappa se 0st 3 Oren iP : nigrocinetus Cxll. (Tenuicinctus Ckll.) Clypes ‘all ‘yellow: scape KEG: Ao . .. Callander Ckll. (Abdomen black and red, “see mufabasis ‘Ckll.) Scutellum with much black hair; lateral black 2 on second tergite (Victoria) <\.. Ue POR Ae gishs eaten DAS Hp age Ckll. Scutellum without black hair Aen Baie at : 16. Face densely covered with golden hair, “hiaing ‘the Surface .. .. SEAL a ere nas LT: Face not covered with eolden hair ah rast Tae es 18. Second cubital cell parallel-sided, receiving recurrent nervure near base; flagellum red at tip (Victoria) .. .. . fimbriatinus Ck. Second cubital cell narrowed above, Ce Teeiprent nervure not so near base CNS We) eee : . fimbriatinus CKll., variety. Male; flagellum long, all black, aacparlienss) i ANS, platycephalus Ckil. Females; venter of abdomen with pure white hair AOE 19. Thorax above with yellow hair; front and sides of face with white hair; clypeus with a median keel (SA). : gallipes Ckll. Thorax with white hair; clypeus not keeled (N.S. W.). truncatulus Ckll. (See also: Thorax above with rich fulvous hair; front with fulvous hair, sides of face with very pale yellowish hair; clypeus very coarsely rugose, not keeled; end of abdomen with very dark fuscous hair (all pale in gallipes); abdomen below with broad creamy-white bands; length about 14 mm... .. .. .. .. female of fimbriatinus CkIl. Clypeus shining, very coarsely punctured, with no median keel; hair at apex of abdomen light brown; flagellum bright red beneath except at base; scopa of hind legs white .. .. .. . .. abdominalis Smith (female) . Abdomen dusky chestnut with purple suffusion; female about 7.5 mm. ONE ase: .. .. cyaneorufus Ckll.) (Pe rufoaeneus Friese is allied.) Region of scutellum covered with a dense patch of orange hair; black species, with very large stigma (Kuranda) .. flavomaculatus Ckll. Without such a patch of orange hair .. .. Ren Sak 21. Sides of thorax above with large pear- -shaped patches of dense felt- like orange hair; black species, with large stigma; female .. .. Spe ee eb eee agen ae . trroratus smith. Thorax ‘not thus ornamented al aR ero toe gt gee a Ua Pode COCKERELL. 13 22. Without blue or green tints (a suggestion of metallic colour on abdomen of leai, tuberculatus, tuberculatus insularis, and metal- TESCENS) 2's RAPES SIR Ree Tele a rd 243 Abdomen at least partly metallic OP cat rin ae Tekan 55. 23. Stigma subobsolete; comparatively large, robust species. 24. - Stigma distinctly developed or large... .. 28. 24. Flagellum entirely ferruginous; eyes green; thorax with fulvous hair; Hiale sss. ik . ferricornis Cku. Flagellum not, or not all, red: “eyes “not green hee dienes Pek e 25: 25. Abdomen with three narrow silver-white hair-bands; female .. . d . tenuicinctus Cll. (P. advena Sm. is allied.) Abdomen without such bands .. .. .. 26. 26. Anterior tibiae black, dark red on inner Enea: ‘sipieal ‘thai of abdomen BAe PLey yn temsaeer se ea eek AN oe eae ta) Be DOEeS TONS CRI. Anterior tibiae red .. . : Ae 27. Female; very robust; hair of thorax above pale ‘fulvous. . i) a ae Ca eh 2 ies AR doe Pde Te ae . Crassipes Smith. Male: less robust . Pr .. .. Crassipes Smith. (See here also P. robustus CkIL., which runs to tenuicinctus, but apical plate of female abdomen much broader, with no median raised line; hair of thorax above white tipped with black.) 28. End of abdomen broadly clothed with extremely bright orange-red iY) See ast 3 CQluras: CEIL (The variety nigrior CkI. has no “white collar on mesothorax in front.) End of abdomen not thus ornamented .. .. . 29. 29. (Tegulae very bright = ahi colour: but. ‘abdomen distinctly metallic .. .. : Re Aine Sie launcestonensis Ckll.) Tegulae not so eoouted: ese sks aig iS Gas 30. CU NTEINGS 45. Poise tne ttn eee AG) tS, rats & AS eek SS Se = WIAIES fob 5 i is: 40. 31. Abdomen with distinct white or whitish hair- bands ao 32. (Small, with thin bands on tergites 3 and 4 .. nicholsoni Ckll.) Abdomen without such bands .. . 30. 32. Clypeus with a tage median ‘keel: “hair “of fifth tergite pale TULVOUS «2s: ihse ans yea iicsey Sats amarenijorns:ys:> CEL. Clypeus without a keel ye ae 33. 33. Mandibles bright red in middle, and. tip of flagellum red; small Species i... pees - halictiformis Ckll. Mandibles not thus red: larger species rae 34. 34. Larger and more robust . advena Smith (worsfoldi CkIl. is ee subspecies.) Smaller and less robust, but very closely allied; abdomen faintly green CFasmania): 2.4 . .. SUbviridis Ckll. (See also P. albovittatus CkIL, very shiny: white hair- bands broad.) 35. Robust species; hair of head and thorax above fulvous with admixture of black; tubercles with conspicuous light fulvous hair; stigma SIAL ree: %¢ fervidus subdolus Ckll. Otherwise; hair of thorax ‘above not thus fulvous tS a3 aie 36. 36. First recurrent nervure joins second cubital cell about middle; scutellum has black hair .. .. . 37. (The scutellum has white hair in P. nicholsoni CkIl.) First recurrrent nervure joins second cubital cell much _ before DE EUS Ee 2 eR Sk Sas EY Pe ao Oe ae Ee 39. 14 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 00. THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. (Abdomen hardly punctured, more or less metallic . metallescens Ckll.) (It is hardly punctured, dull, not metallic, in P. philonesus Ckll., about 9.5 mm. long, from Lord Howe Island.) Abdomen distinctly punctured, not metallic .. .... .. 38. Clypeus flat and shining . See incanescens Ck. (compare also speculiferus Ckil.) Area. of metathorax transversely striate; hind margins of tergites ATCUGEMCC) ee Varn. os Lees) jel secee ba ou COTINGLImOWs Oki: Postscutellum, with a Cuber ian ao: : tuberculatus ‘CKIl. and subsp. insularis Ckll.) “(See also P. opaculus Ckll., clypeus dull and regulose.) Postscutellum without a tubercle .. .. .. nitidulus Ckll. and leat CK. (P. melanurus CKIll., rather resembling a smallish black Halictus, has somewhat the aspect of P. nitidulus, but venation more as P. incanescens, with marginal cell much elongated.) Flagellum light orange ferruginous beneath; very small species with very clear wings; the type has only two cubital cells, but another specimen has the uSual three .. . . «. AaAbnormis Ckll. (Compare here P. aurescens Ckll. length about ‘11 mm.) and P. auri- frons Smith.) Blagellum Gark: o> aie.) Sheet News 41. Flagellum strGnelg srenulatee, i an ipex horn See oes 42. Flagellum ordinary .. . A aE yk Ee 43. Rather large species, with dusky wings SMU Weck cig sexmaculatus Ckll. Very small species, with almost clear wings... . .. .. tbex CK. (P, atronitens CkKU., if sought here, is of the larger size, with almost clear wings.) Very ‘Stall SPE Cles sy eye a io. oO eg cer Vani tn eae 44. Medium sized species .. .. 45. Mandibles red; thorax with ‘white hair above and below: ‘apical tergites with broad reddish margins... 25.02) 0. 2. Oe mins erie Mandibles dark .. .. . a ba ale 0 UST SC ne Mandibles red; flagellum ‘dark, very ‘short tooled La ys tropicalis Cll Clypeus polished and shining; first recurrent nervure joining second cubital cell at or near middle .. . : Sars A 46. Clypeus not polished, or wholly hidden by hair Ne RG aes 47. Wings strongly brownish; much long black hair on front, vertex, and thoracic dorsum .. .. rhe. . OOSCUTUS Smith. Wings clear; hair of thorax above. white: clypeus with a low median ridge .. .. . .. ineanescens CKll. (Compare also P. speculiferus Ckll, and P. perpolitus CkIl.) | Sides of face with triangular patches of dense silvery white hair; first recurrent much: before middle of second cubital cell. 48. Sides of face without such patehes .. .. . 49. Larger; anterior femora black above; tubercles “tufted with fulvous lab oe tices OS, Meet Ci. Smaller; anterior femora light red above: tubercles fringed with white AMAT ay .. .. nitidulus Ckll. Face and front densely covered “with " silver-white hair, CW: Australia) ... .. .. argentifrons Smith. Face and front not thus ‘covered with white hair Te a alee 50. Sides of face with black hair, middle of face: with long white hair (New Zealand) Weeeee ie eee oe 51. 51. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. COCKERELL. 15 Sides of face without black hair, or if some blackish, face with GEN EA CCOMUS TOA a cat se idoe eee ern, Go Sale MeN Sie ERR ea 52. MGIC Of ELOMGESOENIME s wis. tn0 cee) ce ee ei cde se 4 peOonecola ‘CkKIl. Waigdle of front Gull: ..-8, spend seul esone CR: Face with white hair; vertex inn Tour telaee thaie: second cubital cell very broad below, receiving recurrent nervure in middle (W. PUUISERQITA ie ecw: ios eee eelatronitens: CK. Face with pale yellowish or “fulvous hair UE eng Oe hae 53. Anterior tibiae pale ferruginous in front; fade iia cram entirely covered with pale yellow hair :... . euphenaz Ckll. (according to Rayment, this is ‘the male of P. ‘advena Smith.) Anterior tibiae not ferruginous in front... .. .... : 54. Larger (anterior wing almost 9 mm.), wings brownish: ieee BREN cgretipa Re st, Sa MEN _ nigrofulvus ‘CKIl. Smaller: wings not ‘rownish ee ae . .. thornleighensis Ckll. (Compare here P. rudissimus CKIL., with ‘tubercle on postscutellum, and mesothorax and scutellum dull, with sculpture like P. rudis Ckl., and margins of tergites brown.) Thorax black, but abdomen more or less metallic .. .. 56. Thorax and abdomen metallic .. ... 76. Thorax partly black, partly metallic: head. metallic; abdomen green banded; postscutellum with a bidentate process .. . . diodontus CK. pes Smith is allied.) Stigma obsolete: ‘large species: malers. 7.5%. ... .. eCrassipes Smith. Stigma well developed see een. : 57. Tegulae bright apricot colour; “female A ee eae _ launcestonensis Ckll. Merwe NOL sels, COlOULEH oie sd, AS ores eke ng doe 58. RES ee es re AN ire eee oth age ace dy 59. (cf. also providus Sm., about 7 mm. long.) Females .... a : 66. Hind tibiae and tarsi light ferruginous ah . providellus bacchalis Ck. (This is very small; the much larger P. castaneipes has face covered with appressed silver white hair.) Hind tibiae and tarsi black, or Hh ee deep chestnut red, or somewhat reddish .. .. MD ata Nees, coma eh ee 60. Face covered with long plack hair. Beak 3 AS AE ONG AR DS OS Bee UT ae 61. face with: lieht hair 2.2... : 62. Head large, clypeus polished (Tasmania) a “ chalybeatus (Erichson) (My chalybeatus and obscurus males, both from Mt. Wellington, are certainly one species.) Head small, clypeus dullish (New Zealand) .. .. .. .. vestitus Smith. All the tibiae dark chestnut red; face covered with appressed silvery HAIGH 8 23 .. .. castaneipes CKll. (Compare here. P. “helmsi CkIl., " face ‘with long outstanding hair, and P. semiviridis Ckll.) Tibiae not thus red .. .. 63. Sides of face with “triangular “patches of ‘silver-white tomentum CAMSUPAIA) oOo... ae 64. Sides of face without such patches (New Zealand) aie. tes 65. Postscutellum tuberculate; abdomen bluish .. .. .. tuberculatus CkIl. Postscutellum not tuberculate; abdomen not bluish; rather larger species, face with long white hair, vertex with black hair. leai Ckll. 16 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. (These two species are very closely allied. They have the first re- current nervure joining second cubital cell well toward base; hind Margins of tergites reddish, with purplish tints.) Abdomen acu tinged; female antennae testaceous beneath .. .. . metallicus Smith. Abdomen plack . We a ae Se ae nn 0, (0774 (Ch ING Large species, with brilliant: Selden. -green abdomen: Ane) red hair on thorax above .. «-. . pia ener (AOC oly Geuic (CLR te Smaller, quite different species sO eee See 3 ae aes 67. Second cubital cell receiving recurrent nervure cotepioioueie before “middie... % 68. Second cubital cell “recefving recurrent nervure at “middle, or Viri- dicinctus var.) distinctly beyond... .. .. Hata A 70. Large robust species; wings strongly brownish: head and thorax above with much black hair; face very broad; clypeus well punctured; postscutellum with a spine (W. Australia) .. .. .. Subvigilans CkIl. (Similar, but with steel blue abdomen . ee Ckil.) Smaller, less robust species .. .. .. .. .. i 69. Postscutellum with a sharp tabersie” Ne Ne rotne | enn a ‘Hiperouane Ckll. Postscutellum without a tubercle; clypeus with a median ridge; meso- thorax highly polished on disc Laas, and not thus polished in tuberculatus) .. ...... ca aa Ou eeE © kale Wings strongly brownish; head ene thorae ‘Woeve with eh black hair; abdomen hardly metallic .. .. .. .. .. metallescens Ckll. Wings clear, or of slightly brown (maorium) , “abdomen very distinctly Sree). 2. 71. (Compare here P. providus Smith, hair ‘at apex of abdomen white at sides, instead of all black or dark sooty.) Scutellum entirely covered with black hair (New Zealand) 72. Scutellum with dark and light hair (Australia) .... .. Wor Clypeus with a median ridge, and a sulcus on each side of it . ’ maorium Ck. Clypeus ordinary . Me 3S Bottont-CRil: A well defined patch of PES fomentutiy eae mesad, at sides of mesothorax in front of tegulae .. .. .. humerosus cyanurus Ckll. No such patches of tomentum .. .. 74. Abdomen dullish; sides of second tergite without visible punctures under a lens; stigma clear ferruginous; rather small species .. . .. viridicinctus Ckll., variety. (We. amabilis Smith is allied. OP. “pavonellus Ckll. also falls here. but has abdomen peacock green, hind tibiae and tarsi red, hind tibial scopa pale clear reddish; it is much smaller than P. boroniae.) Abdomen more shining; sides of second tergite visibly punctured under a IONS) scien. ae ok A tuft of dull fulvous hair in front of each ‘tegula . 1 Raeke7? CEL No such tufts; abdomen more polished, oily-appearing, not so strongly punctured .. .. ;. .. providus Smith. (P. versicolor Smith resembles providus; it has A narrower abdomen.) (P. chalybeatus (Erichson) was considered by me to be P. providus, but it is not Erichson’s species as understood by Smith. A specimen determined as P. chalybeatus does not appear to differ from P. obscurus. Erichson’s description is unsatisfactory.) 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. COCKERELL. ay Apex of abdomen with bright orange-ferruginous hair; abdomen brilliantly coloured; stigma well developed .. .. turneri Ckll. (compare also elegans Smith.) Apex of abdomen without Strela, naires. 5 As Abdomen splendidly purple; small species; clypeus black, sides of face and front green .. .. Ret cee ornatissimus Ckll. Abdomen pale _ rosy purple, “with > ‘golden tints: ° stiema light ferruginous .. . .«. owls he SCM DUT DUELS French. CKAl. Abdomen otherwise coloured — ar Neti Ce AMET a, Soted gece OA 78. Tarsi clear ferruginous .. .. 79. Tarsi not thus red (type of male bicolor “has ‘hind legs partly BEG aah SG TN ce eRe AS oA one Paes Senet ia ae 380. Abdomen golden ereen (Mackay) RUC ico Ce eRe ee CUT CUS semipurpureus ‘CkIL., variety ae O10). Abdomen dark blue Sreem (NESW) Ss o CUpreUs semipurpureus Ckll. (This species appears very variable, and is probably composite. The type of semipurpureus has the abdomen brilliant crimson-purple. See here also P. amabilis Smith, thorax above with short fulvous hair; abGomen green; legs partly red. P. amabilis var. rufipes Ckll., male, has the hind femora and all tibiae and tarsi red.) Ie ES Ug PAT ns A O12 A a CC a pe A Ree 81. Females .... 83. Second cubital cell receiving ‘recurrent ‘nervure “well before middle; small species with strongly punctured shining green mesothorax .. . .. caeruleotinctus Ckll. (Rather large species “with rough blue mesothorax, and stout spine on postscuteillum .. .. .. .. dentiger Ckll.) Second cubital cell receiving recurrent nervure at or near middle; mesothorax carker- and: bluer 2. 2 Ye ye ee, 82. Sides of face steel blue; tegulae black .. .. vi. COMnMatus smith. Sides of face green; tegulae fulvous (Swan Bo) : 5 plumosus Smith (bicolor ‘Smith) The difference in tegulae is more apparent in the females. In Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 1910, I had: Abdomen broader, shining Steel PlUe SS pasts. 2.) Ye DlILOSUS (omi tn, Abdomen narrower, duller, dark purple .. .. .. bicolor Smith, var. a. P. bicolor var. a. is separated from P. plumosellus Ckll. by the abun- dant black hair on vertex, scutellum and hind part of mesothorax. P. plumosellus has the legs very dark reddish; hair of head and thorax abundant, dull white, with a little yellowish tint, on scutellum greyish; antennae wholly dark; abdomen with strong purple lustre, hind margins of tergites dark reddish. P. melbournensis Ckll. (male from Ararat, V.) is very like plumosus, but hair of head and thorax strongly fulvous tinted, black on vertex and disc of thorax; face (including clypeus) green; abdomen green. Abdomen olive green or golden green... .. om 84. Abdomen dark or steel blue, or (carinatus) blue ereen 23 87. Hair of mesothorax fulvous: smallish: SpeCIES cis. 62 .% 85. Hair of mesothorax at least largely dark or black .. .. 86. Scutellum black; abdomen golden green .. . 2s. mimiulus Cll. Scutellum green .. .. .. melbournensis Ckl1., var. (or ? mimulus var.) Smaller; hair of mesothorax partly fulvous; wings paler .. . Aan ee Raa MCRAE ea edcee tek tetas (ot. 8 melbournensis ‘CKIL. 18 87. 88. 89. 10. 11. THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Larger; hair of mesothorax black; wings darker .. sexmaculatus Ckll. Postscutellum with a conspicuous dentiform or spiniform tubercle .. (P. vigilans Smith has a bidentate ne Postscutellum without such a tubercle ....... 89.. Larger; clypeus little metallic, extremely aaner: a lconspictiete band of white hair between scutellum and mesothorax .. dentiger CkIl. (A little metallic colour on thorax; distinguished from dentiger by the smooth polished abdomen .. .. .. phanerodontus Ckll.) Smaller; clypeus strongly metallic; abdomen very brilliant .. . . megadontus Ckll. Head and thorax. green, abdomen ‘purple; basal nervure joins nervulus; stigma narrow and lanceolate .. .. plumosus Sm. (bicolor Sm.). Abdomen shining dark green; metathorax transversely carinate .. . : ‘ Ee Neto | : . carinatus Smith. The following table is based on specimens in the Australian Museum:— Abdomen banded) red and blackiy oe sa aoe lke Abdomen otherwise .. .. Liat UN SHA etc) CORT UAV Us Re on Very small; only two cubital cells .. .. .. Andrenopsis velutinus Ckll. Three cubital cells; face with orange hair .. .. .. P. rufibasis Ckll. Fifth tergite densely covered with eee light red hair: thorax dorsally with short black hair... ..... .us woe Callurus mgrion Chik End of abdomen otherwise .. .. Ue tt 3. Face densely covered with orange or fulvous hair SE Aaie 4. Face notisO: COVERCOr ie rat aie eigen aati eee eee ae 5. Scape swollen, clear red a a Le ie one. CRTYSOStOomUsTCkIE Scape red, not swollen; all tibiae red . .. .. marginatus Smith, male. Scape black, flagellum red beneath .. .. .. ...... .. velutinus CkIl. Abdomen metallic Se At eo 6. (With a dense patch of yellowish hair at each ‘side of scutellum a EPMO Coy teeny AIP Ce bred _ bicristatus Ckll.) Abdomen ‘not. metallic ae : 14. Wings dilute fuliginous except. at pase: " second ‘cubital cell receiving recurrent nervure before middie; thorax very slightly metallic; postscutellum with a bidentate process; scopa of hind tibiae black behind and pure white in front .. .. See diodontus Ckll. (Abdomen faintly green, see opaculus Ckil.) Wings not thus fuliginous, or if moderately so, first recurrent nervure joins second cubital cell much nearer base .. .. .. .. 7. Thorax metallic ..... 8. (Robust, with clear red tegulae: “abdomen little metallic SN satan Ae UR ok Sa RM ry i eildeacae hardyi CkIl.) Thorax black eae STN Uist 10. Postscutellum with a “long spine FOG oR eck een aI ER “dentiger Ckll. Postscutellum without a spine .. .. segue 9. Robust, with coarse black hair on thorax ‘above RC carinatus Smith. At least some light hair on thorax above .. .. .. .. plumosus Smith. Abdomen yellowish green, dorsally with long hair, hind margins of tereites pallid’ 2.7. Se a en ee ego eialcen sme kr AbDGOMEeN sNO-EDUS Na G Vi ii. ey ee es GN SUR, ie ee iki Male> hind basitarsi lone, red. 22)... fs Jae ee CLI SUC e BCIVAUES Hr rete Sot Rety nn? tae CRAM Gurney a Re ee i iP, 12. 13. 14. 15. LG. Pi. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. COCKERELL. 19 Pe elotaeH Clear LCG tos Rae ts) Me Ss) Sk ee oes 8 eae Ckll. Hind tibiae: black. 22... ils}. Larger (about 14.5 mm.) ; second ‘tergite polished and. hardly punc- CUNEO, GUSIGES! Bl52 32% ee phanerodontus Ckll. Smaller; second Paha finely and closely punctured at sides . . chalybeatus Erichson. Female: very small: hind tibial scopa ‘loose, all white; second cubital CellysMmiatl ands narrows) os Ue aeiene Wal ao. etenolsont CK. mabeer Orieise Males)... 3): Soret cotha aust LMS eine aia 5 ate a gan Au iS: Males with ibex-like antennae be ven ee ate horny Seema ie ny Avice eee toy ca ee, Od de OTHET WISE. 9.0 .. BRL Mai calgily Uicg kan 16. Very small male; ‘anterior legs partly red . a! ue ie OUSTILUS ECKL. Not so small; if smallish male, anterior legs plack . cake Wife Large hairy male, with hind margins of tergites broadly pallid; antennae very long; anterior legs largely red .. .. .. rebellis CkIl. Otherwise .. .. RS 18. Maile; abdomen dull: postscutellum tuberculate See rudissimus Ckll. MECHANICS: coi sr.). >< A 19. Very shiny species, “with more or less fulvous hair on 1 thorax .. leat Ck. Otherwise... 272: <2 20. Abdomen with narrow white tegumentary bands: “eyes not hairy . . marginata lucida Ckll. Abdomen without such bands art Iedlig Abdomen highly polished, with rather “broad white hair- bands on tergites 2 to 4, interrupted on 2 and3.... .. .. albovittatus CkU. Abdomen with narrow white hair-bands .. .......... Zn Abdomen without hair-bands .. .. 23. (Abdomen with bases of tergites very broadly white- -pruinose, apices broadly black; hair of head and thorax black and white .. .. . .. microdontus Ckll.) Larger ‘and more robust; second cubital ‘cell hardly narrowed above; wings brownish .. .. 2 a TOOUSTUS. CKll, Smaller and less robust: second cubital cell stronely narrowed above .. ee COVER. Sm. Clypeus ‘dull, very densely punctured; abdomen slightly greenish: post- scutellum with a short tooth .. .. . ‘ TiS eODACUlUS CRE: Clypeus shining .. . Seater ks at eae 24. Clypeus polished, with a median raised line. ie) se COnMnNaLyrons CK. Clypeus with no such line .. .. . 25. Wings brownish; second cubital cell. broad at base, ereatly contracted above (Lord Howe Island) .. .. 1» a pRiionesus Cll Second cubital cell narrow, moderately contracted: middle basitarsus broadened (King George’s Sound) .. .. metallescens Ckll., variety. Second cubital cell broad, hardly contracted; sides of abdomen beneath with pure white hair; tibial scopa strongly contrasting, Piaekaang. white s20 6 oes, a, ee 8 a eLGLlescens CRIL The following table is based on Specimens in the American Museum of Natural History, received from Dr. H. Friese: AMOOMEM. LEG: Male yee xn a5 sa; 2) 44) fu 22 A rifodeneus Friese. Abdomen not red .. Oa sPne ee nee: arig AaRy oS ew god OR i GOS ES Tin Sree NING A Copeman Se fie eM Sls a Ze RNG boee: DIAC och te... hs ok i 20 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Ge 18. 19. THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Mesothorax and scutellum with very bright red hair; thorax dark bluish green; female .. .. friesei CK. Mesothorax and scutellum without such red hair, or ‘if quite red, abdomen yellowish green .. .. .. Tie Sun ee 3. Abdomen with golden and rosy a Goma .. semipurpureus CKIL. Abdomen with strong eran GING eee iis an ee yea ; Abdomen green .. .. SIG ea AU reG tat O SHRM aan oN PENE Lies 5, 5. Male; flagellum red honest PEG ine his HON ea ne ees festivus Ckli. Memales i sa. s. Shen: . plumosus Smith. Larger, about 10 mm. none: With rea Hone on here b0ne. mimulus Cklil. Smaller, or hair of thorax above not distinctly red .. .. .. 6. Females SCuceHUmMw SCCM 5 Soe os oi ne rene qnelbourienee Ckll. Male CATArab Vi) aie ire Mental eee 1s ae .. melbournensis CkIl. Eyes hairy; legs red; male .. .. .. .. \ Plehoeolens venustus Smith. Eyes hairy; legs black; female .. .: .. .. ....., thornleighensis (CkKIl. HYVES WOU AILY el Aye iota ee her i AI Ss A mre enh na eC 8. Siena oncoiee, SUE es ere Mennine GNM i eee Ma daar ty ta 9. Stigma well developed — APA eee eee ae 11. Abdomen with narrow whitish Baiada (Sydney: NSW. ) ae : marginatus ‘Smith. Abdomen ‘with hind margins of ‘tergites broadly dark OCG TSE er tel iin cto AM ie Ran ep ae eS ce ENO WO Mena IC 10. Female (Adelaide) .. . Bic ciaity Ns UN IR eR eM ordssines Smith. Males (Sydney and Melbourne) Siecuine aerate > i... 6rassipes smith: Legs greatly modified; hind basitarsi ae a Sere minenn angle; head and thorax covered with long bright fulvous hair; male .. .. . Goniocolletes morsus CkIl. Legs ordinary . a eae yen 12. Head and theres with ee fuleoue hae ines. margins of tergites red; female (Waikana Bay) .. .. eid . fulvescens Smith. Head and thorax not thus fulvous haired — SEES AE eae 13: Mesothorax very denSely and coarsely punctured; area of metathorax triangular, highly polished; wings dilute brown .. ventralis Friese. Mesothorax not thus strongly and coarsely punctured .. 14, Small, nc er te 15. much larger .. Gunes Sigs ie Female; femora dark; mesothorax closely punctured perminutus Ckli. Males; femora red .. . ah yhagcioe 16. Smaller; abdomen purplish, hardly punctured : : uo providellus caerulescens ‘CkIL Larger: ‘abdomen not ‘purplish, ‘distinctly punctured =. =. Snes punctiventris Friese. Scopa of hind tibiae large light fulvous on outer side; female (“New Holland)... Pee er ee MR mn eee Hoy uniiirk (ClO 3 Scopa not thus fulvous” startet A aies OmN Sea 18. Smaller, anterior wing 6.7 ‘mm.; “abdomen ‘shining blue-green; female .. .. PONG We Sire ae a? gg Ly ek ails Ulee CTE S ECOL OTe ene Ble Considerably larger eae ae oe 19. Mesothorax dullish, closely punetured, ‘posterior disc shining .. RA ear anes ; ee Erichson. Mesothorax polished, shining Moe A Ret circ gy cade a MRU RL te . franki CKll. COCKERELL. 21 Paracolletes abdominalis Smith. Champion Bay, W.A. Abdomen red; first recurrent nervure joins second cubital cell slightly before its middle; basal nervure meeting nervulus on outer side. Type in British Museum. Among the species which Smith placed in Paracolletes, the second recurrent nervure joins third cubital cell very near its end in crassipes, abdominalis and fervidus; far beyond middle, but some distance from end in marginatus; a little beyond middle in nitidus. . Paracolletes abnormis Cockerell. Alexandria, N. Austr. (W. Stalker). Type in British Museum. Male about 6 mm. long; black, with dull white hair, the face and front densely covered with long shining white hair; flagellum pale ferruginous beneath; abdomen without hair-hands. Some specimens have only two cubital cells. Paracolletes advena (Smith). Described aS Andrena advena. Scutellum with black plumosa hair; tergites 2 to 4 with narrow silvery marginal hair-bands; face very broad; stigma subobsolete. The nest is described by Rayment, Jour. Roy. Soc. W. Australia, xvii., p. 161. Paracolletes albopilosus Rayment. Perth, W.A. (T. Greaves). Male about 10 mm. long; black, with white hair; thin bands of white hair on bases of tergites 1 to 3; caudal tuft black. Allied to P. punctatus, P. incanescens, P. cinereus and P. argentifrons. (Journ. Roy. Soc. W.A., xvi., p. 50.) Paracolletes albovittatus Cockerell. Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Female about 9 mm. long; differs from P. subviridis by abdomen not at all greenish, and the hair-bands are much wider than in P. subviridis or P. advena. Paracolletes amabilis (Smith). Queensiand. Female with hind tibiae and middle and hind tarsi red (hind tibiae not red in male); clypeus and supraclypeal area black, rest of face and front green. I have considered Lamprocolletes metallicus Smith to be the male of P. amabilis. This species is much smaller than P. cupreus Smith. . Paracolletes amabilis rufipes Cockerell. Berowra, N.S.W. (T. G. Campbell). Male less than 8 mm. long; head dark blue green, but middle of front yellowish green, clypeus black; an- tennae entirely black; anterior and middle knees, hind femora, and all the tibiae and tarsi deep chestnut red. Paracolletes andreniformis Cockerell. Yallingup. W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 13 mm. long; robust, black, with black and white hair; thorax with white hair in front and behind, at sides and beneath, but mesothorax (except anteriorly) and scutellum with thin black hair; tergites 2 to 4 with inter- rupted white hair bands. Paracolletes antennatus (Smith). Swan River, W.A. Type in British Museum. Male flagellum orange, largely blackened above, last joint all black, shaped like an incisor tooth, with one surface shining; depressed margins of tergites hyaline. Specimens 22 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. have been taken on Swan River in recent years by Newman and Giauert, as recorded by Rayment. ; Paracolletes apicalis Cockerell. Swan River, W.A. (J. S. Clark). Female about 8 mm. long, slender for a female; head, thorax, legs and antennae black; abdomen largely chestnut red; apical plate very broad, red in middle. Paracolletes argentifrons (Smith). Swan River, W.A. Larger than P. nanus, face covered with white hair, dorsum of thorax with black hair; first recurrent nervure joining second cubital cell not far from base. Paracolletes atronitens CocKerell. Yallingup, W.A. (R. Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 10 mm. long; allied to P. chalybeatus and P. obscurus. Area of metathorax with a basal depressed transversely striated band, limited by a transverse ridge. No hair-bands on abdomen. Paracolletes aurescens Cockerell. Bribie Is., Q. (Hacker). Male about 11 mm. long; allied to P. colletellus, but much longer. The long flagellum (which is not moniliform) is light fulvo-ferruginous beneath. Paracolletes aurifrons (Smith). Adelaide, S.A. Type in British Museum. Abdomen hairy, the margins of the tergites not obviously pallid; first recurrent nervure joining second cubital cell far before the middle. Paracolletes bicolor (Smith). Swan River, W.A. Head and thorax green; abdomen deep blue; hind legs partly red. A variety is described in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., xxxvi., p. 201. It has the vertex and mesothorax strongly green; legs almost with- out red. See also Ann. Mag. N. Hist., July, 1914, p. 47, concerning the varia- tion of this species. Paracolletes bicristatus Cockerell. Tooloom, N.S.W. (Hacker). Type in Queensland Museum. Female about 8 mm. long. Known by the bands of pale fulvous or whitish hair on each side of scutellum. Wings hyaline; stigma large, dark reddish. Paracolletes bimaculatus (Smith). W. Australia, the type from Swan River. Abdomen chestnut red, with a large round black spot on each side of second tergite. For additional details, see Rayment, Journ. Roy. Soc. W. Austr., xvii., p. 160, and Cockerell, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., November, 1905, p. 478, and July, 1914, p. 47. Paracolletes boroniae Cockerell. Birkdale, near Brisbane (Hacker). Visits flowers of Boronia. Female about 11 mm. long; resembles P. viridicinctus, but the abdomen is quite a different shade of green, a quite brilliant peacock green, with a rather satiny gloss. Paracolletes brevicornis (Smith). Moreton Bay, Q. Type in British Museum. Described as a Tetralonia, but it is very close to P. rebellis Ckli. Male with red hair on face; knees, tibiae and tarsi red; flagellum crenulate. See Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1926, pp. 215, 219. COCKERELL. 753) Paracolletes caeruleotinctus Cockerell. Mackay, Q. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Also at Kuranda and Brisbane. Male about 9 mm. long; known by the narrow, brilliantly coloured (blue green, with purple tints) and strongly punctured abdomen. A variety is described in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., XXXV1., p. 204. It was taken at Kuranda. Paracolletes callander Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Also at Perth. Female about 16 mm. long; male about 13.5 mm. Allied to P. nigrocinctus, but distinguished by the large size and bright colours. The sexes look very different. Paracolletes callurus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female 10 mm. long. Distinguished from P. turneri and P. elegans by the black abdomen. Last two tergites densely covered with bright ferruginous hair. Paracoilletes callurus nigrior Cockerell. King George’s Sound, W.A. (Masters). Female broader; anterior part of thorax above without a white collar or band; wings less dusky; anterior tibiae deep chestnut red; end of abdomen with pelehe red hair. Type in Australian Museum. Paracolletes carinatifrons CockKerell. Sydney, N.S.W. (C. Gibbons). Type in Australian Museum. Close to P. perpolitus, but differs in wings. Female, length about 10.4 mm.; black, with the depressed hind margins of tergites lively rufous, and last antennal joint bright ferruginous below. Paracolletes carinatulus Cockerell. Mackay, Q. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 8 mm. long. Also in N.S.W. Variation, see Psyche, 1930, p. 151. Head, thorax and abdomen olive green, or thorax blue-green. Area of metathorax with a Sharp transverse Keel. Paracolletes carinatus (Smith). Described from “New Holland,’ but known from Queensland to Tas- mania. For the characters, see the key. Specimens are in the Australian Museum. Paracolletes castaneipes Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 10 mm. long; black, with the tibiae and tarsi deep chestnut red; wings dusky; abdomen without hair-bands. Apparently related to P. rudis, but not its male, as the sculpture of the mesothorax is quite different. Paracolletes chalceus Friese. Sydney, N.'S.W. Female 13-14 mm. long; black, with black-brown hair; head broader than long; area of metathorax smooth and shining; first two tergites strongly shining; tibial scopa black; wings yellowish. Said to re- semble in appearance the European Panurgus banksianus Kirby. Paracolletes chalcurus Cockerell. Cunderlin, W.A. (R. Illidge). Female a little over 12 mm. long; head and thorax green, abdomen brassy yellow and crimson. Possibly the female of P. roseoviridis, described from a male about 8 mm. long. 24 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Paracolletes chalybeatus (Erichson). - Described as an Andrena. It is at least very near to P. providus, and appears to me identical. Tasmania. See Mem. Queensland Museum, ix., 1929, p. 311; Rec. Austral. Museum, xvii., p. 206. This is the type of Lampro- colletes, distinguished from typical Paracolletes by the well developed stigma. Paracolletes chrysostomus Cockerell. Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. One of the forms which could as well be placed in Anthoglossa. Male about 12 mm. long; scape greatly swollen and light ferruginous. For a full description, and discussion of the Anthoglossa-Paracolietes problem, see Records Aus- tralian Museum, xvii. (1929), p. 202. Paracolletes cinereus (Smith). South Australia. In my 1905 table it falls next to P. obscurus, being separated by the distance from first recurrent nervure to second inter- cubitus, little more than distance from second recurrent to end of third cubital:cell; legs dark red. Paracolletes clypeatus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 10 mm. long, female 11 mm. Both sexes with clypeus and supraclypeal area exposed, nearly bare, fiattened, longitudinally striate, and with a median keel. Hind tibiae of female with a very large, entirely black, scopa. Paracolletes colletellus Cockerell. Adelaide River, N.T. (J. J. Walker). Type in British Museum. Male 8 mm. long; black, very pubescent, the face densely covered with light yellow hair; wings hyaline, stigma and nervures ferruginous; first recurrent ner- vure joining second cubital cell at its extreme base. Looks like a small Colletes. Paracolletes convictus (Cockerell) . Described as Tetralonia. Type in British Museum. Male antennae much longer than in P. brevicornis; flagellum strongly crenulated, fer- ruginous beneath; scutellum with a median depression, but no distinct bosses (bigibbose, with a pair of bosses, in P. brevicornis). The only locality given is Australia. Paracolletes crassipes Smith. Swan River. The type of Paracolletes. P. australis Friese, is a synonym. Smith described the female; the male (taken by Froggatt in New South Wales) is described in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., April, 1912, p. 378. It has a thick flagellum, ee crenulated beneath; tibiae and tarsi ferruginous. Paracolletes crassipes leptospermi Cockerell. Mackay, Q. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 12 mm. long; smaller than true crassipes, with light hair on posterior edge of hind tibiae (fuscous in crassipes). The first tergite is back, with the hind margin broadly pale reddish; the others are dark greenish, with the hind margins broadly ferruginous. Paracolletes cristatus (Smith). “New Holland,” in the W. W. Saunders collection. Type in the Hope Museum at Oxford. Scutellum and postscutellum with long bright red hair; area of metathorax with a median transverse ridge, below which are trans- verse striae. COCKERELL. 25 Paracolletes cupreus (Smith). Adelaide, S.A. Type in British Museum. Head and thorax green; abdomen with strong crimson tints; hind tibiae and middle and hind tarsi red; flagellum ferruginous beneath. Paracolletes eyaneorufus Cockerell. Bribie Is., Q. (Hacker). Female about 7.5 mm. long; close-to P. rufo- aeneus, but considerably smaller. Paracolletes of this group show a certain relationship with Euryglossidia. Paracolletes dentatus (Rayment). Moora, W.A. (UL. J. Newman). Female about 14 mm. long; head blue, with black clypeus; mesothorax black, blue anteriorly; scutellum blue; post- scutellum with a long dentate concave process; abdomen dorsally iridescent shining green, with coppery and blue tints. Type of Nodocolletes Ray- ment. Paracolletes dentiger Cockerell. W.A. (Preiss). Type in Berlin Museum. Taken by Turner at Yallingup. Female about 12 mm. long; deep purplish-blue, strongly punctured, the pubescence black and white; postscutellum with a stout spine. The male is described in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., July, 1914, p. 41. Paracolletes diodontus Cockerell. Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Female about 13 mm. long; related to P. vigilans, but separated by the metallic head, ereen-banded instead of green abdomen, flagellum not fulvous beneath, and darker wings. Postscutellum with a very large median bidentate process. Paracolletes elegans (Smith). Adelaide, S.A. Head, thorax and abdomen dark blue; apical tuft of abdomen bright orange-fulvous; area of metathorax Shining. Paracolletes erythrurus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 12 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen bright but not shining fer- ruginous; wings unusually short, strongly dusky. Male with labrum, mandibles (except apical margin) and clypeus cream colour; face covered with bright golden-fulvous hair. Allied to P. bimaculatus, and super- ficially like P. fimbriatinus. . Paracolletes eucalypti Cockerell. Mt. Yule, Healsville, V. (R. Kelly). Type in British Museum. Male about 10 mm. Iong. Also at Beaconsfield, V. (F. E. Wilson). Female; see Mem. Queensland Museum, ix. (1929), p. 308. A metallic species, resembling P. castaneipes as to the legs, but the male has much smaller eyes and broader face. Also related to P. subviridis, but abdomen differently coloured. Paracolletes eugeniarum Cockerell. Mackay, Q. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 11 mm. long; unusually narrow; black, with the hind margins of the tergites de- pressed, broadly whitish hyaline, the part just before the depression red- dened; flagellum red beneath. Hind spur of hind tibiae with long, strong teeth, very different from the numerous slender spines of P. platycephalus. 26 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Paracolietes euphenax Cockerell. Brisbane, Q. (Hacker). Superficially resembles P. incanescens. Goes south to Sandringham, V. Rayment states that this is the male of P. advena Sm.; he has taken the sexes mating. (Journ. Roy. Soc. W. Aust., xvil., p. 161). In my original description I referred to this as a possibility. Paracolletes facialis Cockerell. Coolangatta, Q. (A. J. Turner). Male nearly 9 mm. long; resembles P. nitidulus and P. regalis. The abdomen is very dark purplish. Goes south to Sandringham, V. Paracolletes faliax Cockerell. Bribie Is.. Q. (Hacker). Female about 9 mm. long; black. punctured, looking like an Halictus, and with the basal nervure strongly arched. Re- lated to P. punctatus, but wings strongly dusky, nervures and stigma piceous; marginal cell obliquely truncate at end. Paracolletes ferricornis Cockerell. Hermannsburg, Cent. Aust. (H. J. Hillier). Type in British Museum. Male a little over 11 mm. In the colour of the antennae, etc., it is curiously parallel with P. fimbriatinus hillieri, from the same locality. Flagellum long, entirely very bright ferruginous. Paracolletes fervidus Smith. “New Holland.” Pubescence fulvous; flagelium fulvous beneath (ac- cording to Smith; the specimen marked type at British Museum has dark antennae); abdomen slightly metallic. Paracolletes fervidus subdolus Cockerell. Cheltenham, V. (French). Female a little over 12 mm. long. Perhaps a distinct species; for a discussion of the characters of this and P. fervidus see Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., March, 1913, p. 279. There is much fuscous hair on thorax above in subdolus. Paracolletes festivus CocKerell. Sydney, N.S.W. (Frank). Type in Amer. Mus. Nat. History. Male, near P. plumosus. Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343 (1929). Flagellum ferruginous beneath; legs chestnut red; abdomen splendid purple-blue, margins of ter- gites reddened. Paracolletes fimbriatinus Cockerell. Victoria (C. French). Type male in British Museum. The female was taken at Stanthorpe, Q.; Mem. Queensland Mus., ix. (1929), p. 306. The thorax has rich fulvous hair above; the clypeus is very coarsely rugose. (In the somewhat related P. gallipes the clypeus has a median keel, wanting in P. fimbriatinus.) Paracolletes fimbriatinus hillieri Cockerell. Hermannsburg, Cent. Austr. (H. J. Hillier). Type in British Museum. Male about 8 mm. long; hair of head and thorax cream colour; flagellum bright ferruginous above and beneath; abdomen more shining, the hair on apical margins of tergites wholly pale. Paracolletes fimbriatus (Smith). Australia, as labelled in British Museum; Smith gives no locality. Abdomen red, like that of P. rubellus; a dense black apical tuft; area of metathorax with a strong transverse Keel. COCKERELL. 27 Paracolletes flavomaculatus Cockerell. Type in British Museum, from “Australia,” but known from several localities in Queensland. Dodd and Wheeler took it at Kuranda. The female (slightly over 10 mm. long) is described in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., XX¥XVi., p. 201. The male is about 9 mm. long; scutellum with yellow hair. Paracolletes franki Cockerell. Adelaide, S.A. (Frank). Type in American Museum of Nat. History. Female about 12 mm. long. Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343 (1929). Black, robust; fiagellum red beneath except at base; mesothorax polished; wings brownish hyaline. Paracolletes frederici Cockerell. W. Australia. Male abdomen red, very hairy at base, and with thin white hair-bands; no spots on sides of second tergite; legs entirely red, front femora with very long hair beneath; antennae red, flagellum blackish above; face covered with long light fulvous hair. This is Lamprocolletes rubellus Smith, not Dasycolletes rubellus Smith. Paracolletes friesei Cockerell. King George’s Sound, W.A. Type in Queensland Museum. Female about 11 mm. long. This is P. fervidus Friese, and is Known especially by the bright red thoracic hair. (Mem. Queensland Museum, ix., p. 306.) Paracolletes frontalis (Smith). “New Holland.” Black, the abdomen submetallic. Male with bright ferruginous mandibles and face densely covered with silvery white hair. Tibial scopa of female white, “having a beautiful goiden reflection above.” There are specimens in the British Museum marked “probably frontalis,” but they seem not to be that species. Paracolletes fulvus (Smith). Queensland. The female falls in a little group with P. ruficornis and P. waterhousei, the abdomen having abundant fulvous hair; but it is larger than these, with red legs, and plumose scopa on hind tibia blackish. Paracolletes gallipes Cockerell. Poonarunna, S.A. Female about 11 mm. long; rather slender, black and clear ferruginous red. Known by the pointed wings and unusual venation, marginal cell subtruncate at apex; second cubital cell nearly square, receiving first recurrent nervure very near base. Legs clear fer- ruginous. Paracolletes hackeri Cockerell. Brisbane, Q. (Hacker). Female 10 mm. long; head, thorax and legs black, first three tergites dark blue. South to Sydney; see Psyche, 1930, p. 150. Allied to P. providus. Paracolletes halictiformis Cockerell. Yailingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 8 mm. long, black. Probably the female of P. minutus Ckll. It looks like an Halictus. Smaller than P. sigillatus, with much more closely punctured mesothorax. Paracolletes helichrysi Cockerell. Mt. Tambourine, Q. (Hacker). Female 7 mm. long; robust, black, the hind margins of tergites broadly fusco-testaceous; tegulae black; wings 28 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. hyaline, faintly dusky at apex. Rather like P. halictiformis and P. sigillatus, but quite distinct. (Mem. Queensland Museum, vi., 1918, p. 112.) Paracolletes helmsi Cockerell. Kosciusko, N.S.W., 5,000 ft. (R. Helms). Type in Australian Museum. Male about 12 mm. iong, slender, head and thorax black, abdomen blue- green. Something like a large edition of P. chalybeatus, with much dark hair cn head and thorax. ; Paracolletes hobartensis Cockerell. Hobart,. Tasmania (J. J. Walker). Type in British Museum. Female 12 mm. long; black, with black and greyish-white hair; abdomen wholly without hair-bands. Tegulae black. Paracolletes humerosus (Smith). Melbourne, V. A large patch of short moss-like ochraceous hair on each side of mesothorax. Paracolletes humerosus cyanurus Cockerell. Oakley, V. (French). Female a little over 9 mm. long; patches of hair on mesothorax white, with a faint creamy tint, but hair of thoracic dorsum otherwise black; abdomen shining, distinctly purplish. Paracolletes ibex Cockerell. Windsor, V. (French). Male 8 mm. long; slender, black; flagellum suggesting the horns of an ibex. The legs are black. Paracolletes incanescens Cockerell. Stradbroke Is., Q@. (Hacker). Female about 11 mm. long; black, head and thorax very hairy. Male 9 mm., face with thin, white hair, flagellum entirely black, moniliform. Related to P. punctatus and P. obscurus. The male resembles P. thornleighensis. Paracolletes incomptus Cockerell. Mundaring, W.A. (R. Illidge). Female about 9 mm. long; near to P. plebeius, but separated by the dark flagellum, area of metathorax shining (dull in plebeius) ; and from P. recusus by the brownish wings, and scutellum with no median sulcus. Paracolletes irroratus (Smith). Victoria. There is a large patch of short moss-like bright red or yellow hair on each side of mesothorax. P. humerosus Smith is the same species. See Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., June, 1926, p. 661. The male is more slender; face densely covered with silky brownish-white hair; antennae long, en- tirely dark. The type of P. irroratus is in the Hope Museum at Oxford. Paracolletes launcestonensis Cockerell. Launceston, T. (Littler). emale about 8 mm. long; head, thorax and legs black, the small joints of tarsi reddish; abdomen very dark greenish, with hind margins of first two tergites appearing narrowly ferruginous; flagellum wholly dark; tegulae bright apricot colour; wings fuliginous, stigma large and black. Paracolletes leai Cockerell. Ulverstone, T. (Arthur M. Lea). Female about 12 mm. long; slender, black, the abdomen obscurely metallic, the fifth tergite entirely greenish; wings hyaline. Also King Island. Differs from P. versicolor by the ridged clypeus, and very dark smooth (not silky) abdomen. COCKERELL. 29 Paracolletes latifrons Cockerell. Coolangatta, Q@. Female about i1.5 mm. long; black, robust, very broad, with rather thin dull white hair; vertex with long black hair; posterior middle of mesothorax, and disc of scutelium, with short black hair. Prob- ably nearest to P. advena, which has a narrower abdomen with more dis- tinct hair-bands. : Paracolletes maculatus Rayment. Sandringham, V. (Rayment). Female abovit 10 mm. long, male 9 mm. Allied to P. platycephaius, P. rufoaeneus and P. bimaculatus. Rayment gives a plate of structurai details (Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, xliii., p. 49). Paracolletes maorium Cockerell. | Described from New Zealand, and probably not Australian, but a speci- men seen labelled “New Holland.” Paracolletes marginatus Smith. Queensiand to Tasmania. It will be recognised by the characters given in the key. In Rec. Australian Museum, xvii., p. 202, its generic position is discussed, and it is concluded that it cannot be separated generi- cally from Anthoglossa sericea Smith. Concerning its relation to Tricho- colletes venustus, see Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., March, 1913, p. 274. Paracolletes marginatus lucidus Cockerell. Geraldton, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Female with caudal tuft fulvous, the abdominal bands white; the clypeus highly polished, with a few scattered punctures, its apical margin reddish. Paracolletes maximus Cockerell. Victoria (Hill). Type in American. Museum of Natural History. Male about 17 mm. long; black, robust; thorax above with bright red moss-like hair. It is one of the species which might as well be placed in Anthoglossa, aS that genus is now understood. (Amer. Mus. Novitates, 346, p. 9.). Paracolletes megachalceus Cockerell. Clarence River, N.S.W. (Wiison). Female about 14 mm. long; robust; head and thorax black, densely hairy, abdomen brassy green, hind margin of second and following tergites broadly pale reddish; postscutellum with a median tubercle. Related to P. dentiger. There is a prominent tubercle on the supraclypeal area. The Australian Museum has it from Raymond Terrace, near Newcastle, N.S.W. Paracolletes megadontus Cockerell. Caloundra, Q. (Hacker). Female 10 mm. long; close to P. dentiger, but smaller; area of metathorax smooth and shining, without transverse striae; hind legs not metallic; abdomen shining and finely punctured. Also on . Stradbroke and Bribie Islands. Paracolletes melanurus Cockerell. Tooloom, N.S.W. (Hacker). Female about 6.8 mm. long; rather like P. nitidulus, but venation quite different. Marginal cell very long, with narrow end; second cubital ceil small, narrowed above, receiving first recurrent nervure a little beyond middle; first cubital cell longer than the other two together; stigma large. Face very broad. Paracolletes melbournensis Cockerell. Melbourne, V. Type in Berlin Museum. Female about 11 mm. long; Olive-green, the clypeus and supraclypeal area strongly punctured, black, 30 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. with crimson and golden tints at sides and in vicinity of the suture between them. Known from P. mimulus by scopa of hind tibia with a dark fuscous band extending its whoie length; vertex with dark hair. Paracolletes melbournensis clarki Cockerell. Perth, W.A. (J. Clark). Type in Queensland Museum. Female about 11 mm. long; clypeus highly polished; thorax above with rather pale grey hair; black on disc of mesothorax and scutellum. See also Rayment, Journ. Roy. Soc. W. Australia, xvii., p. 160. Paracolletes metallescens Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 11 mm. long, male 9 mm. Differs from P. versicolor by the darker abdomen, with pure white instead of yellow hair beneath. P. providus has the abdomen bluer and more shining. The male P. metallescens has the flagellum strongly crenulated beneath, recalling P. ibex. Paracolletes microdontus Cockerell. Perth, W.A. (J. Clark). Type in Queensland Museum. Female about 10 mm. long. Black, with no metallic tints; clypeus moderately convex, shining, with strong but not very dense punctures, the disc somewhat flat- tened; postscutellum with a small but distinct tubercle. (Mem. Queens- land Museum, ix., 1929, p. 309.). Paracolletes mimulus Cockerell. Victoria (C. French). Type in British Museum. Female about 10 mm. long, very near to P. melbournensis, but smaller and less robust, with tibial scopa of hind legs white in front, yellowish behind; stigma and nervures clearer ferruginous; abdomen with golden tints. Paracolletes minutus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male a little over 6 mm. long; known from P. punctatus by the closely punctured thorax, colour of antennae (flagellum obseure brown beneath) and fuscous nervures. Paracolletes moniliformis CockKereil. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male 9 mm. long; closely allied to P. ibex, with similar flagellum, but larger, with brownish wings and dark stigma. Paracolletes moretonianus Cockerell. Moreton Bay. Male about 11 mm. long, with the aspect of nomia semi- aurea CkKll. Legs red. Paracolletes nanus (Smith). W. Australia. Female black and shining, expanse of wings about li mm.; mesothorax little hairy; first recurrent nervure joining second cubital cell about its middle (not far from its base in the larger P. argentifrons) . Paracolletes nicholsoni Cockerell. Kojarena, Eradu and Geraldton (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Female nearly 7 mm. long; black, shining, with thin erect white hair. Known from P. nanus by the dark antennae, and apical margins of tergites not testaceous. Paracolletes nigritulus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 7 mm. long; Known by the small size, dusky wings and especially the truncate marginal cell. The clypeus is quite convex and prominent. There is black hair on vertex. COCKERELL. Silt Paracolletes nigrocinctus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male 11-12 mm. long. Also at Kojarena, W.A. The abdomen is dull red, tergites 1 to 5 having narrow subapical black bands, the margin beyond subhyaline, and on tergites 2 to 5 having a thin fringe of short silvery-white hairs. Paracolletes nigroclypeatus Cockerell. Victoria (C. French). .Type in British Museum. Female 12 mm. long; close to P. carinatus, but larger, with the clypeus black, and fringe on fourth sternite white. Flagellum bright ferruginous beneath. Paracolletes nigroclypeatus hardyi CocKerell. Perth, W.A. (Hardy). Type in Queensland Museum. Female with abdomen black, with a steel blue band on each tergite before the marginal depression. It presents the unusual condition of having the head and thorax more metallic than the abdomen. Paracolletes nigrofulvus Cockerell. Shoalhaven, N.S.W. (Froggatt). Male, length about 11.5 mm.; black, with the hind margins of tergites, and the hind tarsi, obscurely ferruginous; flagellum strongly crenulated beneath; wings dusky. Paracolletes nitidulus CockKerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 9.5 to 10 mm. long, male about 85 mm. An ordinary looking species, but en- tirely unique by the large black spot at end of marginal nervure of hind wing of male. In the female this is represented by a much smaller, elon- gated spot. Wings brownish, with large stigma. Paracolletes nitidus Smith. N.W. Coast of Australia. Female abdomen with a distinct bluish lustre; violet tints on mesothorax; basal nervure falling a long way short of nervulus; first recurrent nervure joining second cubital cell about or slightly before its middle. Paracolletes nomadiformis Cockerell. Kuranda, Q. (Dodd). Male about 6.5 mm. long; abdomen clavate, with a narrowed base, giving it the appearance of a Nomada. Tubercles covered with fulvous hair, and also scutellum and POSES GL forming a large orange-fulvous patch, as in P. flavomaculatus. Paracolletes nomiaeformis CockKerell. Charleville, Q. (A. J. Turner). Male about 8 mm. long; very near P. sigillatus, but smaller, face much narrower, and mesothorax much more punctured. It looks like a Nomia. (Mem. Queensland Museum, x., p. 48.). Paracolletes obscuripennis Cockerell. Tasmania. Type in British Museum. Male about 9 mm. long; face densely covered with light yellow hair, at sides of upper part of front it is black; wings rather light fuliginous; stigma large. Paracolletes obscurus (Smith). Tasmania. Distance from first recurrent nervure to second inter- cubitus more than twice distance from second recurrent to end of third cubital cell. For a discussion of characters, see Mem. Queensland Museum, ix. (1929), p. 310. Variation, Mem. Queensland Museum, vii., p. 92. * 32 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Paracolletes opaculus Cockerell. Geraldton, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Female about 9 mm. long. Known from P. twberculatus by the rough opaque clypeus. Also related to P. obscuripennis. Paracolletes pachyodontus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male 8 to 9 mm. long; black, with red mandibles, and the abdomen with approximately lateral thirds of first three tergites, as well as apical bands on the first four, deep chestnut red. Somewhat related to P. rhodopus. Paracolletes pavonellus Cockerell. King George’s Sound, W.A. (Masters). Type in Australian Museum. Female about 9.3 mm. long. Known from P. viridicinctus by the peacock green abdomen with dull sericeous surface, the apical depressions of ter- gites black. The abdomen resembles that of the much larger P. boroniae. Paracolletes perfasciatus Cockerell. Western AuStralia. Type in British Museum. Female nearly 12 mm. long; black, the abdomen narrow, depressed, very shiny, with bread entire sordid white hair-bands. Stigma and nervures biack. Paracolletes perminutus Cockerell. Fremantle, W.A. (Frank). Type in Amer. Mus. Nat. History. Female about 7 mm. long. This is Lamprocolletes minutus Friese. The first ter- gite is smooth and highly polished, this and the very pale dull yellowish stigma, with dark border, separating it from P. minutus Ckll. (Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343, 1929, p. 2.). Paracolletes perpolitus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 9.5 mm. long; very close to P. incanescens, Which has the same type of clypeus (with bare flattened polished disc), but flagellum red at end, abdomen more finely punctured, and third cubital cell different. Paracolletes phanerodontus Cockerell. King George’s Sound, W.A. (Masters). Type in Australian Museum. Female 14.3 mm. long; abdomen steel blue. Related to P. subvigilans, but abdomen differently coloured and wings much clearer. The smooth polished abdomen separates it from P. dentiger. Paracolletes pictus Rayment. Charleville, Q. (G. F. Hill). Female about 11 mm. long; allied to P. elegans. (Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, xliii., 1930, p. 47.). I am indebted to MY. Rayment for a specimen of this beautiful metallic species. Paracolletes platycephalus Cockerell. Windsor, V. (C. French). Type in British Museum. Female about 10 mm. long; black, with the abdomen bright ferruginous red; second tergite with a black spot on each side. The dark legs and venation separate it from P. fimbriatus and P. fimbriatinus. The hind spur of hind tibia is very finely pectinate, with many very slender long spines. The male has hair of head and thorax above ochreous, without fuscous; apex of abdomen with pale golden hair. . Paracolletes plebeius Cockerell. Bright, V. (H. W. Davey). Female about 10 mm. long; very near P. providus, but the head is smaller, the flagellum dusky chestnut red be- COCKERELL. 33 neath, and the dark purplish colour of the abdomen is quite different. The tibial scopa, black above, white beneath, separates it from P. frontalis. _ Paracolletes plumosellus Cockerell. “New Holland.” Type in British Museum. Male about 7.5 mm. long; head and thorax bluish green; abdomen with a strong purple lustre. Near to P. plumosus. Rayment records it from Perth, W.A. Paracolletes plumosus (Smith). From W. Australia to Victoria, and north to Queensland. Head and thorax green, abdomen purple; basal nervure meets nervulus; stigma narrow and lanceolate. The male is described, and distinguished from P. plumo- sellus, in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., xxxvi., p. 200. See also Rayment, Journ. Roy. Soc. W. Australia, xvi. p 50. Variation, Mem. Queensland Museum, x., p. 48. Paracolletes providellus Cockerell. Type in British Museum, labelled “Australia.” Male about 7.5 mm. long; head and thorax shining biack; abdomen shining dark bluish green, with the hind margins of the tergites broadly reddish. . Paracolletes providellus bacchalis Cockerell. Bacchus Marsh, V. (F. L. Billinghurst). Male a little over 7 mm. long; abdomen with only the faintest greenish tinge; hind tibiae, and basal half of their basitarsi, bright chestnut red; tegulae piceous. Paracolletes providelius caerulescens Cockerell. Como, N.S.W. (Froggatt). Type in Amer. Mus. Nat. History. Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343 (1929). Legs all rather dark red, including femora; abdomen shining steel blue, with hind margins of tergites conspicuously dusky reddish. If P. bacchalis is considered a distinct species, this is a variety of bacchalis. Paracolletes providus (Smith). Tasmania to Queensland. Doubtfully distinct from P. chalybeatus, and I believe it to be a synonym. Western Australia, recorded by Rayment in Journ. Roy. Soc. W. Australia, xvii., p. 161. The abdomen is broader than in P. versicolor. Comparison with P. hackeri, Mem. Queensland Museum, Se p.. 49. Paracolletes punctatus (Smith). Adelaide, S.A. Female with abdomen brown-black; stigma and ner- vures ferruginous. The basal nervure meets nervulus. Paracolletes punctiventris CocKerell. Sydney, N.S.W. Type in Amer. Mus. Nat. History. Male about 8.5 mm. long; near P. incanescens, but fifth sternite with a stiff fringe of long pale hair. Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343 (1929). Area of metathorax not trans- versely striate, as it is in P. speculiferus and P. perpolitus. Paracolletes pusillus Cockerell. Geraldton, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Male with the aspect of P. nicholsoni, but basal nervure conspicuously less arched, and second cubital cell receiving recurrent nervure almost at its inner corner. Known from P. scitulus by the entirely black middle and hind legs, and from P. minutus by the dark mafidibles. Paracolletes rebellis Cockerell. Melbourne, V. (C. French). Type in British Museum. 34 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. North to Jindebyne, N.S.W., at 3,000 ft. Legs darker than in P. brevi- cornis. See Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1926, p. 218. It resembles P. crassipes, but the large triangular area of metathorax is strongly longi- tudinally sulcate in the middle and finely transversely striate. Paracolletes recusus Cockerell. Mt. Tambourine, Q. (Hacker). Female about 10 mm. long; similar to P. plebeius, with median sulcus on scutellum and hyaline wings, but antennae black, surface of clypeus polished, and area of metathorax shin- ing. Apical margins of tergites dark greenish. Paracolletes regalis Cockerell. Kuranda, Q. (Dodd). Male about 10 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen shining deep rich purple, without hair-bands; antennae black; a strong brown cloud in the marginal cell and beyond (in the related P. recusus there is no such cloud). Paracolletes rhodopus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female a little over 13 mm. long; rather robust, black, with the hind tibiae bright fer- ruginous, with hair of the same colour on outer side; hair of head and thorax abundant; black in the same places as in P. subvigilans, otherwise pale ochreous-tinted. Paracolletes robustus Cockerell. King George’s Sound, W.A. (Masters). Female 123 mm. long; re- sembling P. tenuicinctus, but separated by the very broad apical plate of abdomen, which has no median raised line. Wings brownish. Postscutellum ‘with a rather low conical process. Paracolletes roseoviridis Cockerell. Western Australia. Type in British Museum. Male about 8 mm. long; allied to P. carinatulus, but more robust, yellowish green instead of blue green, the abdomen with a rosy suffusion. Paracolletes rubellus (Smith). Lower Plenty, S. Australia. Described under Dasycolletes. Female abdomen red; hind spur of hind tibiae pectinate with numerous fine Jong teeth; first recurrent nervure meeting second intercubitus; second recurrent meeting outer intercubitus. Paracolletes rudis Cockerell. Swan River, W.A. Type in British Museum. Female about 10 mm. long; black, with the general appearance of P. worsfoldi, but lacking the _abdominal bands; easily known from P. obscurus by the duil mesothorax; the scutellum is dull and roughened, while in P. worsfoldi it is shining. Paracolletes rudissimus Cockerell. Wyalcatchem, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Male about 7.3 mm. long; black, including mandibles, antennae, tegulae and legs; hind margins of tergites rather narrowly shining brown; post- scutellum with a distinct but low median tubercle. Looks like a Nomia, put is related to P. rudis, and may possibly be its male. Paracolletes rufibasis Cockerell. Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Male about 12 mm. long; black, with clypeus honey colour (black along lateral sutures) ; scape clear red; abdomen marked with red. It has a relatively short first . COCKERELL. 35 cubital cell, and could be placed in Anthoglossa. It also appears related to Andrenopsis flavorufus. Paracolletes ruficornis (Smith). W. Australia. Area of metathorax large, indistinctly transversely sericeo-striate; flagellum red; face covered with fulvous hair. I have thought that this might be a female, Goniocolletes. Paracolletes rufiventris Friese. Adelaide. Female 13-14 mm. long; black, with thick fulvous hair; abdomen red, tergites 1 to 3 with a dark mark, tergites 5 and 6 black brown, with dark hair. The wings are dusky. Paracolletes rufoaeneus Friese. Adelaide, S.A. (Frank). Very near P. bimaculatus. Second cubital cell receiving recurrent nervure not far from its end. Additional details are given in Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343 (1929). Paracolletes rufus Rayment. Purnong, S.A. (Fulton). Male about 11 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen clear red; face densely covered with long golden hair; wings hyaline. Rayment figures the details of structure, showing the remarkable antennae (Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, xliii., p. 53). Paracolletes scitulus Cockerell. Brisbane, Q. (Hacker). Male about 8 mm. long; resembles P. speculi- ferus, but easily separated by the clypeus, which is convex and finely punc- tured; antennae long, not moniliform, flagellum dark brown beneath. There is a superficial resemblance to P. incanescens. Paracolletes semilautus Cockerell. Type in British Museum, from “Australia.” Male about 8 mm. long, black; known by the very broad face, with black hair at sides. Stigma and nervures amber colour. A table to separate this and numerous other species is given in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., January, 1906, p. 28. Paracolletes semilucens Cockerell. Perth, W.A. (J. Clark). Type in Queensland Museum. Female about 8.5 mm. long; black, small and rather slender, with rather the aspect of a male. Compared with P. sigillatus, it is very distinct by the lack of broad hyaline margins to the tergites, the dark hair at apex of abdomen, and the red tegulae. Paracolletes semipurpureus (Cockerell) . Mackay, Q. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 9.5 mm. long. Described as a race of P. cupreus, Lamprocolletes cupreus var. minor Friese is the same. Variation, see Psyche, 1930, p. 150. The abdomen is much less shining than in the variety frenchi. Paracowletes semipurpureus frenchi Cockerell. Rutherglen, V. (French). Vertex, thorax above, and tubercles with light orange-fulvous hair; abdomen strongly crimson; anterior and middle basitarsi almost entirely black. Paracolletes semipurpureus ornatissimus (Cockerell) . Oxley, near Brisbane, Q. (Hacker). Female about 8.5 mm. long; very brilliantly coloured, the abdomen shining but not polished, with peacock green, lilac-purple and crimson tints. The male is also Known. Described as a distinct species. 36 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Paracolletes semiviridis Cockerell. - Charleville, Q. (A. J. Turner). Type in Queensland Museum. Male about 8.3 mm. long; head and thorax black, with.much outstanding white hair, pale ochreous on thorax above; abdomen dull olive green, hind margins of the tergites very pale testaceous. (Mem. Queensland Museum, x., p. 48.). Paracolletes sexmaculatus Coekerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female 13-14 mm. long; robust, with head, thorax and legs black; abdomen bluish green, with six patches of pure white hair. Male 11-12 mm., much more slender, and the abdomen only very feebly metallic, and not spotted. Paracolletes sigillatus Cockerell. S. Australia (from Froggatt’s collection). Female 10 mm. long; black, with hind margins of tergites broadly testaceous; postscutellum angularly produced behind, with a small shining tubercle suggesting the seal on the flap of an envelope. Paracolletes simiilimus Cockerell. i Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Male about 10.5 mm. long, resembling P. metailescens, but sculpture of abdomen entirely different. Paracolletes speculiferus Cockerell. National Park, Q. (Hacker). Male about 9 mm. long; known from P. perpolitus by the entirely dark antennae and entirely black front tibiae. Paracolletes subdentatus (Rayment). Quairading, W.A. Female about 12 mm. long; head dark blue, with black clypeus; mesothorax black, bluish posteriorly; scutellum bluish; pleura blue, with fuscous hair; postscutellum with a bidentate process; abdomen dorsally green.. The area of metathorax has concentric striations. Flagellum fulvous beneath. Paracolletes subfuscus Cockerell. Adelaide, S.A. Type in British Museum. Male about 13 mm. long, looking like a large Colletes; area of metathorax shining; abdomen hairy. Paracolletes subvigilans Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female 13.5-14 mm. long; the abdomen dark green, the discs of the tergites sometimes almost black, but the broad hind margins always green; postscutellum with an obtuse tubercle. Paracolletes subviridis Cockerell. Bridport, T. (Littler). Female 9.5 mm. long; rather slender, appar- ently black, but on close inspection it is seen that the front, mesothorax (except a large central area) and abdomen are faintly greenish; wings hyaline, not at all reddish. Differs from P. obscurus by the black man- dibles, tibial scopa beneath white (not yellow), and dull thorax. It is much narrower than P. advena. Paracolletes tenuicinctus Cockerell. Yallingup, W.A. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female 12.5-13 mm. long. This proves to be the female of P. nigrocinctus. Turner found the sexes together abundantly on Leptospermum. Paracolletes thornleighensis Cockerell. Thornleigh, N.S.W. (Froggatt). Type in British Museum. Male a little COCKERELL. 37 over 7mm. long. Lamprocolletes nigriventris Friese, also from Thornleigh, is a synonym. The female is described in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., July, 1914, p. 42. Paracolletes tropicalis Cockerell. Melvilie Island (G. F. Hill). Female about 6 mm. long; black, with the mandibles and labrum clear red, tegulae ferruginous, hind margins of ter- gites broadly dark reddish brown. Known by the small size, short dark flagellum, red mandibles and largely red legs. Type in American Museum of Natural History. (Amer. Mus. Novitates, 346, 1929, p. 1.). Paracolletes truncatulus Cockerell. Blackwood, N.S.W. (Froggatt). Female about 9 mm. long; head and thorax black, abdomen clear red, with a pyriform black spot on each side of second tergite. Related to P. rubellus, but nervures not testaceous and apex of abdomen with neither hair nor tegument dark. Paracolletes tuberculatus Cockerell. Cheltenham, V. (French). Female about 11 mm. long, male 10 mm.; postscutellum with an obtuse median tubercle or very prominent angle. Except for the character of the postscutellum, allied to the group of P. versicolor. Paracolletes tuberculatus insularis Cockerell. Stradbroke Is., Q. (Hacker). Also on Bribie Island. A little smaller and less robust; mesothorax more shining and less densely punctured; area of metathorax with the transverse striae feeble, scarcely evident; thorax above with some dark hair; hind tibial scopa with black hair behind to apex. This is based on the female. Paracolletes turneri Cockerell. Mackay, Q. (Turner). Type in British Museum. Female about 11 mm. long; brilliant blue and green, with the caudal tuft bright orange fulvous. Allied to P. elegans. Paracolletes velutinus Cockerell. Eradu, W.A. (Nicholson). Type in Australian Museum. Male about 11 mm. long; black, slender, wings unusually short; flagellum clear ferruginous beneath. Paracolletes ventralis Friese. Sydney, N.S.W. (Frank). @? about 12.5 mm. long, black, without metallic colours. Very briefly described by Friese, but a full description is given in Amer. Mus. Novitates, 343 (1929). Paracolletes versicolor (Smith). Adelaide, S.A., to Mt. Wellington, T.; and P. spatuiatus Cockerell, taken by Froggatt at Blackheath, N.S.W., is the same species. P. spatulatus was described from a male, slightly over 8 mm. long; it is broad, with rather the shape of a female. Paracolletes vigilans (Smith). Swan River, W.A. Abdomen strongly green; area of metathorax smooth and shining; postscutellum with a large bidentate process. It is larger than P. metallicus (being over 13 mm. long) and has darker wings. As to the process on postscutellum (overiooked by Smith), see Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., XXxXvi., p. 199. 38 THE BEES OF AUSTRALIA. Paracolletes viridicinctus Cockerell. Tasmania. Type in British Museum. Female a little over 8 mm. long; head and thorax black; abdomen black with the depressed hind margins of the tergites brassy green. Antennae black. Paracolletes vitrifrons (Smith). Swan River, W.A. Male with only two cubital cells; stigma large; clypeus covered with silvery hair; supraclypeal area nude, shining brassy. Paracolletes waterhousei Cockerell. Victoria. Differs from P. ruficornis Sm. by the area of metathorax smaller, shining, with a beaded margin, and flagellum not red. It is smaller than P. fulvus. There is a strong resemblance to the New Zealand P. fulvescens (Smith); see Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1926, p. 218. Paracolletes worsfoldi Cockerell. W. Australia (C. M. Worsfold). Type in British Museum. Female about 10.5 mm. long. Also at King George’s Sound. Best regarded as a subspecies of P. advena; see Mem. Queensland Museum, ix. (1929), p. 308. The shining scutellum distinguishes it from P. rudis. Wings of Tricholletes venustus Smith (Sydney, N.S.W.). Photographed by J. G. Pratt, U.S. National Museum. 39 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AVIAN EMBRYO. (Read before members of the Avicultural Section on 14th August, 1933.) By GarNET HatioraNn, B.Sc., M.D., F.R.A.C.S., F.R.C.S. (Ep.) Vice-Chairman of the Section. While aviculturists acknowledged their indebtedness to Darwin and Mendel of last century they had come to realise, however, that in recent years modern biologists had so advanced their work that further funda- mental principles were now accepted. This applied particularly to the science of cell-life, and much of this work had been done on the avian embryo. To a body of men so well versed in the study of the macroscopic in bird-life, whose excursions afield and whose avicultural observations had perfected their knowledge in such matters as bird distribution, variations, feeding and nesting habits, it followed, a priori, that constructive use should be made of the knowledge so gained, and there resulted therefrom the breeding of new colour varieties, the evolution of new types, and hybri- disation. But both macroscopic and microscopic studies must go hand in hand if they were to more thoroughly understand and appreciate the underlying principles of such constructive work. Moreover, such microscopic studies should go back to the commencement of cell-life and excursions down the microscope into the realms of avian embryology provided much of interest. The mechanism of fertilisation of the ovum could be demonstrated microscopically, and the professional biologist in recent years had advanced our knowledge of the sex-determining sex-chromosome distributing mechanism. It was known that each cell had its characteristic species number and type of chromosomes. The chromosomes were alike in the cells of the two sexes, with the exception of one pair Known as the sex- chromosomes, and these differed in the sexes. In each body cell or unripe ege of the female there would be an identical pair of these sex chromo- somes, usually designated as the X. chromosomes (XX), whereas in each body celt and unripe sperm of the male there would be an X. chromosome and a somewhat dissimilar mate—the Y. chromosome (XY). Certain erroneous theories of sex determination were now discarded, and the modern conception of sex determination through the medium of the sex chromosomes was generally accepted. It was now recognised that the sex of any individual was determined at the moment of fertilisation by this sex-chromosome interchange in which to the chromosomes already existent in the unfertilised egg there were superadded those of the fertilising spermatozoan. It was the male and not the female in mammals that was heterogametic, meaning, thereby, that from the sex determination point of view the ova were of the same type, but the sperms were of two kinds—male determiners and female determiners. In birds, however, this order was reversed, the female being hetero- gametic and the male monogametic. The transmission of hereditary factors or genes on the chromosomes could also be demonstrated. Examples of sex-linked inheritance were known in which physical characteristics were transmitted on the sex chromosomes of the cells. Drosophila, the fruitfly, was a lateral gynandromorph in which the red eye was on the female side. The cells on this female side carried two X. 40 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AVIAN EMBRYO. chromosomes (XX.), whereas the cells of the male white-eyed side had only one X. chromosome. Colour blindness in homo sapiens was a further example of sex-linked inheritance; the normal, the carrier and the colour- blind determining factors being transmitted on the chromosomes. An interesting field for observation would seem to be opened up in hybridisation where there must be an interchange of chromosomes be- tween cells of two individuals of different chromosomal number and type. Proven examples of hybrid fertility should be recorded, as in the case of the bird exhibited by Mrs. D. Alexander, Plenty Road, Preston, Victoria, who claimed it to be the off-spring of a canary and canary mule. As development proceeded, certain gland secretions or “hormones” played an important part in determining the birds’ later attributes. Sex reversal was known to occur in the bird world. Whereas it was well known in other classes—the Gipsy moth, the oyster and the sword-tailed minnow being classical examples—it did occasionally occur in the bird. It could be demonstrated both by controlled experiment as in removal of the func- tioning ovary in the hen or in disease of that organ. In either case, the smaller non-functioning ovary could then become active and conformed microscopically to the male type of sex gland. Coincident with this change in the gland, the external characteristics of sex were also reversed —the bird now behaving and appearing as a male. Biologists had come to the conclusion that the differentiation into a female is a function which every embryo can perform, unless a male sex- chromosome is present to differentiate it into the male type. Goldschidt assumed “that during embryonic life the female-deter- mining reactions are effectively in excess in the case of the female fowl, and the sex gland was then differentiated under the influence of these re- actions. So long as this ovary remained healthy, then its action could pre- clude the cperation of the male-differentiating reactions. In later life, if the ovary were removed by the knife or disease, it would take place under the influence of the male-differentiating reactions, which had overtaken and replaced the female-determining reactions. This would appear to be a reasonable explanation of sex reversal. Examples of alleged sex reversal, observed personally by trained avi- culturalists in this section, should be recorded in the scientific literature of this Society, and, if possible, submitted to laboratory investigation. Mr. Ernest Jones, past Secretary of the Avicultural Section, has sup- plied me with notes on a case of probable sex reversal in a hen King Quail. Having reared families during the first two seasons, she then gradually assumed the plumage of a male bird. This plumage she retained through- out the next year and showed no desire to breed. At the next time of moulting she reverted to female plumage, such plumage being several shades darker than the normal hen bird. She never laid again, however. She subsequently became very sluggish in her movements, became very plump and overfat, waddling along as her abdomen touched the ground. A week later she died. Facilities were not available for further investigation, but it is prob- able that such sex reversal was associated with a left ovarian tumour which subsequently caused her death. Sex Ratio. Little seemed to be known of the control of the sex-ratio in bird life, and therein lay the opportunity for further research. In the case of man, HALLORAN 41 it was established that far more males were conceived and that both be- fore and aiter birth the male died more easily than did the female, leaving an excess of adult females. Almost always the male births were in excess, however, on an average, the ratio being 106 : 100. Certain statistics are available, however, in the case of the Pigeon and “Hen Fowl.” We are indebted to Professor W. J. Dakin, of Sydney Uni- versity, for the translation of Goldschmidt’s work on this subject. Dis- cussing the selective elimination of the sexes, he states “it is a frequent occurrence that in the hybridisation of relatively widely separated forms only males are produced or strikingly many males. In many cases this may be due to inter-sexual transformation as in a Series of Lepidopteron crosses and perhaps certain pigeon crosses (Whitman-Riddle). But in other cases it may be bound up with a general constitutional weakness of the hybrids, one sex of which is more affected than the other, just as one sometimes finds, that one sex is more sensitive than another in the young stages. In this category perhaps come Guyer’s pheasant and guinea-fowl, i.e., common fowl hybrids, but the accuracy of his statements, namely, that there is a marked excess of males in such hybrids, is strongly contradicted by Poll, who found quite a normal distribution of the sexes.” Elimination of a sex by a sex-linked inheritance factor known as the “lethal factor” might also occur. Where birds were bred in sufficient numbers and careful note was made over a period of years of lineage, Mendelian ratios, sex and plumage of the off-spring, such a breeder should be in a position to supply accurate statis- tics on the subject of sex-ratio, and such statistics should be contributed to the literature of scientific aviculture. Sufficient had been said to show that there was a call for co-operation between the aviculturist and the professional zoologist. From this sec- tion, as from the other ancillary sciénces functioning within the ambit of the parent zoological Society, much valuable data could be made available, and our problems begun in the humble nest-box were more clearly dis- cernible when viewed in the light and focus of the oil-immersion lens of a trained laboratory worker. The progressive stages of chromosome interchange and early avian development were demonstrated by lantern slides. 42 THE DOOM OF THE BIRD OF PROVIDENCE. Pterodroma melanopus (Gmelin). By GILBERT WHITLEY, F.R.Z.S., R.A.O.U. (Plate i.) Many different kinds of birds have become extinct within historical time. When they flourished, few persons imagined that their existence was in danger, or troubled to conserve them, and their passing was either scarcely noticed, or regarded as a temporary inconvenience. A record, unique in the annals of ornithology, has come to light in the form of a contemporary account of the extermination of the petrels of Mount Pitt, at Norfolk Island, in the early days of settlement in New South Wales. This account is contained in a manuscript diary, kept by Lieutenant Ralph Clark, of the Royal Marines, which is preserved in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. Clark arrived at Sydney with the First Fleet in 1788 in the “Friendship” Transport, and went to Norfolk Island, under Major Ross, in March, 1790, when he was appointed Quartermaster General and Keeper of the Public Stores. In this capacity, he kept a conscientious tally of all the petrels or “mount Pit Birds” (called the Bird of Providence by Hunter) which were killed by the marines, sailors, and convicts from day to day, so we obtain what is practically an exact record of the slaughter of this species in the earliest days of Australian settlement. Lieutenant Ralph Clark was styled “The Pepys of early settlement and of the First Fleet” by a writer using the pseudonym “Quercus” who re- viewed this same diary in the “Sydney Morning Herald,’ September 26, 1891. Clark Island, a well known spot in Sydney Harbour, was named after him. Fortunately, Mr. Tom Iredale has epitomised the history of the Bird of Providence (Pterodroma melanopus) in earlier papers in this journal (1), to which the present data are complementary. Over 170,000 Birds Slaughtered! The following is a typical entry in Clark’s manuscript journal:— “Saturday, 10th April, 1790. Birds kild by M. 159 S. 147 C. 319 625.” This indicates that the marines killed 159 birds, the sailors 147 and the convicts 319, the total being 625 birds brought in to the Quartermaster the night before. Many further figures are given, and totals checked from time to time, but to avoid the interpolation of wearisome ciphers, I append the data in a single footnote (2). (1) Iredale, Australian Zoologist, v., 4, 1929, pp. 358-361, pls. xxxix.-xl.; et ibid., vi., 2, 1930, pp. 112-116, pl. xiii. (2) April 10th: M. 159, S. 147, C. 319; 11th: M. 145, S. 178, C. 291; 15th: M. 183, S. 165, C. 418; 18th: 766, plus 68; 21st: 431, 511, 634; 22nd: 296, 184, 301; 23rd: 234; 24th: 409, 374, 814; 25th: M. 218, S. 179, “by the convicts don’t know”; 26th and 27th: 2,653; 28th: 211, 191; 29th: 313, 480, 505; 30th: 196, 483, 795. May ist: 743, 901, 1,239; 2nd: 941, 749, 1,397; 3rd: 302; 4th: 845, 793; 5th: 905, 965, 705; 6th: 507, 801, 761; 7th: 501, 991, 1,092; 8th: 796, 1,013, 1,890; 9th: 4,783; 10th: 410, 903, 2,797; 11th: 304, 687, 301; 12th: 398, 594, 1,130; 13th: 403, 731, 391; 14th: 703, 409, 931; 15th: 608, 703, 485; 16th: 4,731; 17th: 4,031; 18th: 309, 437, 614; 19th: 3,081; 20th: 939; 21st: 381, 631, 839; WHITLEY. 43 These figures may be taken as being the minimum. From them, we see that, in April, 13,251 birds were killed; in May, 82,321; June, 70,699; and part of July, 5,091. This results in a grand total of 171,362 birds, or, in round figures for the three months, April 10 to July 10, 1790, over 170,000 Birds of Providence slaughtered. Further Extracts from Clark’s Diary. April 18th, 1790—“‘The patroles in going the Rounds last night took Ino Loural a convict prisoner he being out of his hut after Tattoe beating contrary to orders and having a Sack with Birds in it on the patrole chal- lenging him he attempted to make his escape by flight but the Corp! of the Patroles was to nimble for him and before he would stop for him he was wounded in the head but not of any consequence. “The Haversack contained 68 of the mount Pit Birds.” It will be noticed that punctuation is not one of Lieutenant Clark’s strong points. His diary is very closely written and difficult to read on this account, and because he frequently employed contractions, notably “the” for “they.” May ist, 1790.—“‘A General Order given out respecting the Birds.” May 2nd.—‘‘The Birds of mount Pit last night were so thick that the came down a little after sunset like a shower of hail. My servant was there and kil’d himSelf 193 Birds it is a great Blessing that we have these Birds in such abundance. Birds M. 941 S. 749 C. 1,397.” — May 9th.—“‘Sent the Boat out a fishing who caught 182 large Snappers supplyd every [body] on the Island with a great allowance of Fish. The people brought in Birds last night to the amount of 4,783, long may this Blessing continue.” May 19—‘Birds brought in last night 3081” [Major Ross prohibited the cutting down of trees on Mount Pitt, as this might cause the birds to leave.] May 21—“‘A complaint was made to Major Ross to day that some of the convicts had [been] to Mount Pit only for the sake of the Birds Eggs. The catch the Birds and them that have no eggs the let go again and them that are with Egg the cut the Egg out of them and then let the Poor Bird fly again which is one of the ‘erueles things which I think I ever hord. I hope that some of them will be caught at this cruel work for the sake of making an example of them. Birds kil’d last night by M.381 S.631 con- victs 839.” May 22.—“One order came out to day respecting the people going to mount Pit and taking with them Dogs, Tools and Implements and 22nd: 2,052; 23rd: 5,631; 24th: 4,354; 25th: 1,839; 26th: 3,113; 27th: 1,811; Boum ta9a, 29th? 153; 30th: 4.727: 3st: 913, 1.101, 2743. June Ist: 951; 2nd: 3,930; 3rd: 1,390; 4th: 4,341; 5th: 6,125; 6th: 5,190; fice noos oul. tala: GuNe oD1o, 10th: £.591¢ Ith: 1-831: 12th: 1,907: r3th: B09; 4th? 4,103; 15th: 2,114: 16th: 1,320: With: 307; 18th: 410: 19th: 319: 20th: 734, 1,137, 2,341; 21st: 3,464; 22nd: 703; 23rd: 1,149; 24th: 805; 25th: 410; 26th: 1,793; 27th: 5,035; 28th: 451; 29th: 343; 30th: 415. sSuly ist: 240: 2nd: 213. 3rd: 439: 4th: 591: 5Sth> 608: ‘6th: 313° 7th: 443; 8th: 410; 9th to 1lith (no record, Clark being away); 12th: 310; 13th: 409; 14th: 319; 15th: 441; 16th: 354; 17th onwards: no record. 44 ' THE DOOM OF THE BIRD OF PROVIDENCE. destroying the Birds there cruely and wantonly for which See the Orderly Book. The Convicts were mustered to day and the order which came out today read to them..Birds 2052.” July 19th, 1790: “Majr. Ross called the Council together and we came to the following Resolution, Viz. The Lieutenant Governor and Council having Judged it absolutely necessary that as long as the Birds at Mount Pit are to be had in such abundance and as the Season of the Year is approaching for the Boat to be Employed in fishing that there should not be any more Salt Beef or Pork Issued from the store until these most Valuable Resources fail us.” . . “Since I have been out to at Charlotte Field the Serjeants of the guard have neglected taking an account of the number of Birds which the people have brought in so that I have no account off them and as the people dont come to the guard house as before shall not be able to get an account.” Thus the tally ceases, but the data given are extraordinarily compre- hensive and constitute, I think, unique observations on the extinction of a species. In April to July, 1790, we have seen that at least one hundred and seventy thousand Birds of Providence were killed, so it is small wonder that the species became scarce for a while and eventually became extinct on Norfolk Island. On Saturday, October 6, 1790, Clark went to Phillip Island with his ser- vant and caught Tropic Birds, and on later dates secured still more speci- mens to replenish the Larder of the Marines. On December 6, Clark sent “one of the Boat’s crew on Nepean Island to get Gannets for the sake of the Feathers to make me a Bed”. Fifty gannets were obtained for him, and eighteen more the day after, so it is hoped that our Lieutenant slept well. His diary is then taken up for weeks with the affairs of the settle- ment (both in “Town” and at Charlotte Field), accounts of the weather, and references to the punishment of the convicts, both male and female, by flogging. Wednesday, 23 March, 1791, “two of the convicts went to Mount Pit to see if the Birds were come in, the were taking Prisoners by the Patrole and when I came out Mr. Doidge reported them to me when I order them to their work and took the Birds from them (the got 23) and gave the Birds to the Patrole and acquainted Major Ross with it that the Birds were returned to the Mount again who sent me out word to desire Mr. Doidge would lett some men go there every night to get Birds for them selves, and that he would stop Salt Provisions in lieu of the Birds.” In the next few days the “Birds are aS numerous as ever,” and on Tuesday, April 12, 1791, Clark visited Mount Pitt and himself killed 55, though, he says, he could have killed four times that number had he wished. . Early Bird-marking Experiments. Saturday, May 21, 1791—‘Sleep at Charlotte Field last night and the night before and went both evening to mount Pit to see if the Birds have any particular hole which I am convinced the have from the Birds which I marked on Thursday Eveg coming back to the same hole last night with the mark on there leggs which I put on them the night before.” This is an important note, as these appear to be the first bird-marking experiments in the Pacific Ocean of which we have any record. WHITLEY. : 45 Then there is this last ornithological observation from Norfolk Island, when Clark remarks the damage done to birds by storms:— November 9, 1791—“After cold weather and heavy winds a great num- ber of different Sea Birds have been blown on shore some of them dead or great number with hardly any life in them.” It is interesting to note that sea-birds are usually washed ashore dead on Sydney beaches about the end of October almost every year. ; Clark left Norfolk Island on the “Queen” about the end of November, 1791, having been on the island continuously since March 13, 1790. He pro- ceded to England in the “Gorgon” in 1792, and his diary terminates abruptly: Sunday, June 17, 1792—“I wish God that the wind would come full then we might goe into Plymouth but there is no hopes of that.” The Clark Correspondence. The Mitchell Library also has a typewritten copy of Clark’s Journal. (No. C. 219), in which there are, in addition, copies of some of his corres- pondence. One communication (Letter Book MS., p. 26) from Clark to James Beveridge, London, is dated Norfolk Island, August 24, 1790, and has the following postscript: “I have taken the liberty to send you your favour of Mr. Murray, a Mount Pit Bird (not on account of the beauty of its plumage) of which it has none, but on account of its being one of the birds that has preserved the lives of five hundred and odd persons, for these several months past.” In a letter to G. Kempster, Stonehouse [near Plymouth], dated Norfolk Island, August 26th, 1790, Clark says: “The Mount Pit Birds have been the greatest friends that. ever any of us Knew, for I may with truth say that they have saved all our lives, the greatest part of us would have been in our graves long ago if it had not been for these birds, since April last, there has been no less, one night with another, than between four and five thousand killed. I shall return my thanks for them the longest day I have to live, they are all nearly gone, they just lasted until the arrival of the ships, but there is another bird come in now, also a sea fowl which burrows in the grounds, also like the Mount Pit Bird (which they call mutton birds) from their tasting like to mutton, they are remarkably fat and in great abundance.” Writing to Capt. Campbell, Marines, Port Jackson, on February 11, 1791, Clark repeats some of the earlier information, but adds:— “You will hardly believe me when I inform you that from the latter end of April until the middle of July, no smaller number on a very moderate computation than five thousand, was killed a night. I have often known seven and eight thousand, particularly on the Sunday evenings, brought into camp, by the Sailors, Marines, and Convicts (male and female) which number was caught in five hours, there never was a bird caught until one hour after sunset, and everybody was obliged to leave the Mount before ten o’clock, they never came in from the sea (or wherever they came from, for that I do not Know) until about sunset, when they generally hovered about the Mount for an hour before they came down, which was as thick as a shower of hail, this account will make the old story of Moses being in the Wilderness be a little more believed, respecting the shower of quails (3), everybody here owes their existence to the Mount Pit Birds, before (3) Exodus, xvi., 13; Numbers xi., 31 & 32; and Psalm ev., 40. 46 THE DOOM OF THE BIRD OF PROVIDENCE. they entirely left us, another bird (4) came in and supplied their place, but was not attached to Mount Pit only but was found in the holes of the ground in the day time, all over the Island. They resemble the Mount Pit Bird in plumage, make, etc. all but the feet, which are white, which the Mount Pit birds are not, they cut, when boiled, like mutton for which we named them the flying sheep, they were also in great abundance for six weeks, when their young took flight and they all left us.” William Bradley’s Observations. In the hope that the interest of the subject will form the excuse for some unavoidable repetition, I will append quotations from other contem- porary accounts, commencing with the unpublished journal of William - Bradley, another First Fleet naturalist whose MSS. are also in the Mitchell Library. William Bradley, of the “Sirius,” prepared some of the first maps of Port Jackson, and Bradley’s Head, not far from Clark Island, is named after him. In his “A Voyage to New South Wales” (Mitch. Lib. MS., p. 199), Bradley wrote from Norfolk Island, in April, 1790:— “Parties were allowed to go for Birds, for the Seamen, Marines & Con- victs twice a week each & limited not to bring more than a proportion of 3 for each Man. These Birds are very numerous and burrow in the ground about the Hills particularly about Mount Pitt which is the highest land in the Island; It was the practice before we came to dig them out of their holes in the daytime, but the people now take them as they settle in the evening & early part of the night & were they not restricted they could bring away almost any number. These Birds are nearly the same as the English Puffin or Manks Puffin as described in Brooks’s Natural History found on the Isle of Man & Scilly Isles: & is of the size of a tame pigeon; The colour on the upper parts is brown or black & on the under brown & white; legs black. The bill is narrow & black, about an inch & half in length, the upper chap is crooked at the point like that of a Cormorant & at the base there is a bald skin in which the nostrils are placed. The wings are long & the tail is a palm in length. It feeds at Sea & although such incredible numbers settle on the Hills to get into their Holes at the appearance of night, a great number has been taken in the daytime by being dug out with grubbing hoes or brought out by tarrier dogs, they lay but one Egg which is larger than that of the common Hens, they are said to be in & about this Island from March to August when the young are ready to fly they all go off together; about which time another sort is said to come, but not in such numbers; these Birds are a great resourse to us, they enable us to go on with the Cultivation of the land for the Crops which we must soon depend on if we are not releived & which, I fear, will not keep us without feeling the pangs of extreme hunger.” | Again in February, 1791—The birds which so providentially afforded us subsistence from March until August, when relief arrived from Port Jack- (4) Apropos of this second bird, Mr. Tom Iredale remarks: “The coloration of the feet suggests the Fleshy-footed Shearwater, Hemipuffinus carneipes (Gould), which does not now live on Norfolk Island, though abundant on Lord Howe Island. Another Shearwater, Thyellodroma paci- fica (Gmelin), now breeds on Norfolk Island, but in this species the legs are plumbeous in coloration. No species takes such a small length of time for incubation and growth of young, so that ‘six weeks’ is probably simply an error of time.” WHITLEY. 47 son, cannot again be expected for some years, from the vast number of Eggs & young Birds that were destroyed & the ground in which they bur- rowed being torn up; But for a small number of Inhabitants the Birds may always [be] a resourse in case of accident happening to a ship with sup- plies or other failure. (MS., pp. 221-222). ne oe aie Other Contemporary Accounts. In his excellent article, already quoted, Mr. Iredale wrote: ‘Probably there is more romance connected with the Petrel, entitled by Captain John Hunter, ‘the Bird of Providence,’ about one hundred and forty years ago, than with any other bird on the Australian List.” The romance is even heightened by this additional information which has so unexpectedly come to hand since, and search through other documents of our early days may reward the ornithologist with more tit-bits. For the present, I may quote an apposite contemporary account of the Bird of Providence from Mr. Iredale’s account. “Thus wrote Hunter: ‘In the month of April (1790) we found that Mount Pitt (Norfolk Island), which is the highest ground on the island, was, during the night, crowded with birds. This hill is as full of holes as any rabbit-warren; in these holes at this season these birds burrow and make their nests, and, as they are an aquatic bird, they are, during the day-time, frequently at sea in search of food; as soon as it is dark, they hover in vast fiocks over the ground where their nests are. Our people (I mean seamen, marines, and convicts), who are sent out in parties to pro- vide birds for the general benefit, arrive upon the ground soon after dusk, where they light small fires, which attract the attention of the birds, and they drop down out of the air as fast as the people can take them up and kill them; when they are upon the ground, the length of their wings pre- vents their becoming able to rise, and, until they can ascend an eminence, they are unable to recover the use of their wings; for this purpose, nature has provided them with a strong, sharp, and hooked bill, and in their heel a Sharp spur, with the assistance of which and the strength of their bill, they have been seen to climb the stalk of a tree sufficiently high to throw themselves upon the wing. This bird, when deprived of its feathers, is about the size of a pigeon, but when clothed, is considerably larger, for their feathers are exceedingly thick; they are web-footed, and of a rusty- black colour; they make their holes upon the hills for breeding their young in; they lay but one egg, and that is full as large as a duck’s egg. They were, at the end of May, as plentiful as if none had been caught, although for two months before there had not been less taken than from two to three thousand birds every night: most of the females taken in May were with egg, which really fills the whole cavity of the body, and is so heavy that I think it must fatigue the bird much in flying. This “Bird of Pro- vidence,” which I may with great propriety call it, appeared to me to re- semble that sea bird in England, called the Puffin; they had a strong fishy taste, but our keen appetites relished them very well; the eggs were ex- cellent. For a further description, and an engraving of this bird, see the Norfolk Island Petrel, in Phillip’s Voyage, 4th Edition.’ “If we now refer to Collins, we read the tragic ending to the wholesale murder of these defenceless birds. ‘The great havoc and destruction which the reduced ration had occasioned among the birds frequenting Mount Pitt had so thinned their numbers, that they were no longer to be depended upon as a resource. The convicts, senseless and improvident, not only 48 THE DOOM OF THE BIRD OF PROVIDENCE. destroyed the bird, its young, and its egg, but the hole in which it bur- rowed; a circumstance which ought most cautiously to have been guarded against: as nothing appeared more likely to make them forsake the island.’ This appeared under date August, 1792. “The prognostication that they would forsake the island proved correct, but we have no data as to when this event occurred. Apparently few birds were preserved aS specimens... . “The Norfolk Island Petrel bred in numbers, and was exterminated in - that locality through stress of food demand at a very early date, perhaps before the year 1800. mee “Many years later a similar bird was shot in Bass Strait, and remained unrecognised for over seventy years, when the original species was again found living, not on Norfolk Island, but on Lord Howe Island. It still breeds there and apparently wanders through the Tasman Sea as the ex- ample captured by Gould indicated. “The bird is known to the Lord Howe Islanders as the ‘Big Hill Mutton Bird.’ ” An Anonymous Account. A letter written by one of the non-commissioned officers of the “Sirius” after the wreck of that vessel at Norfolk Island is reproduced from the Banks Papers in the Historical Records of New South Wales, i., 2 (1783- 1792), 1892, pp. 397-402. It is dated August, 1790, and the part dealing with the Bird of Providence is as follows:— “No doubt you will wonder when I tell you that the same Tasks were performed on these very reduced Rations as when on full allowance; but this was owing to a Divine and providential resource from and about Mount Pitt, which place supplied the whole Settlement with Birds from the latter end of March till the middle of August. “The Bird is a specie of the Petrel, which comes to this Island about the beginning of March, when they burrow under Ground for laying. They were at first taken out of their Holes in the Day, but soon after we found Night to be the Time for slaughter, as our whole Horizon (in the Woods) was then covered with them, and there was no walking without kicking them before you. “The Mould being soft and loose on the Mount, they found no difficulty in scratching their Way. Their holes are about 3 feet long, and on a gradual descent. About the middle of April there were vast numbers of Eggs taken, both from the Holes and Birds, which, if possible, were now thicker than ever. It would be impossible for me to give an account of either the Quantity of Birds or Eggs. I can only say that while the Birds laid them (which was from the middle of May to the beginning of June) there was no scarcity in any part of the Town, and were bartered at a very cheap rate. On the 19th of April the Birds became so very plentiful (and our Store so lean) the Governor issued out a conditional Order that if every person would give up half a pound of his salt Meat a Week they might kill and bring home as many Birds from the Mount as they pleased (as long as it did not interfere with their Work), being before this restricted by allowing only so many Persons to go out at a time, and that quantity issued out by the Store Keeper to every individual. This being agreed to, instantly took place, and the slaughter and nightly havoc is beyond Des- cription. It is worthy of Remark that these Birds were coming in when our sad and melancholy Catastrophe happened, and were very scarce at the arrival of the relief. Nothing could have been better timed, and, WHITLEY. 49 though rather paradoxical, everything happened as favourably as could be: the Birds as above; the Ship being cast away in the only spot where there would be the least Chance of saving either our People or the Pro- visions, all our Men keeping health to the last, and our Crops in a most flourishing State at the relief’s arrival. As I have enclosed a drawing of the Bird, I shall give no further description. We had, besides our Friends, the Pittites (the Vulgar Appelation), another very capital resource if the weather would have permitted fishing, which in this Season of the Year is so very unsettled that on an average we have had but 3 fine days out of 15 fit for fishing. Therefore, our reliance on this very precarious resource was of little note when compared to the Birds, which were to be had in any number for going for. They are very fine eating, exceeding fat and firm, and, I think (though no Connoisseur), as good as any I ever eat.” The editor of the Historical Records states that “The sketches and plans mentioned in the letter are not among the Banks Papers.” Rome commemorates the sacred geese whose cackling saved the Capitol from the surprise attack of the Gauls, and Norfolk Island may well remember the Birds of Providence which were sacrificed to save the lives of its first white inhabitants. EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. The Bird of Providence, Pterodroma melanopus (Gmelin). The larger figure is from a hitherto unpublished painting, the original of which is rather more than one foot high. Artist unknown. The upper figure is from a smaller drawing, likewise unsigned, but painted by another artist. The originals of both are included in the King Estate papers in the Mitchell Library, where they were photographed by Mr. Anthony Musgrave. 30 NOTES ON SARCOPHAGID FLIES (DIPTERA). By G. H. Harpy. Walter and Eliza Hall Fellow in Economic Biology, Queensland University, Brisbane. On the bristles of the posterior clasper—When examining the various features common to forms in certain groups of the genus Sarcophaga, I have been impressed with the consistency in which the outstanding bristles on the posterior clasper occur. These are not only consistent in number, but also in position, and in no case of the Australian fauna and their im- mediate allies from other parts of the world have I found the bristles en- tirely absent, but occurring in groups of one, two or three bristles. The antilope-group has but one bristle, and it is the only case yet found where a slight variation occurs, and when the posterior clasper is short and broad the bristle may be small and overlooked. It is situated on the apical half and sometimes well towards the apex of the clasper. (See Hardy, 1923, p. 278, fig. 3.) In the crinata-group one bristle is strongly developed and situated towards the base. Specimens of the fergusoni-group are too few for adequate study, but apparently only one bristle occurs, situated towards the apex and is not very well defined. Other species that have a single bristle, situated basally, are: littoralis J.& T., froggatti Taylor and spinifera Hardy (1923, p. 277, fig. 2). On epsilon J. & T., and possibly the same applies to depressa Desv., it is situated apically, whilst on the impatiens-group, hardyi J. & T., and alcicornis Hardy (1932, p. 276, fig. 1), the bristle is situated about the middle of the anterior edge. Under the subgeneric name Parasarcophaga J. & T., it is proposed to combine the albiceps-group, the misera-group and the peregrina-group, all of which have two bristles, situated very close together and placed sub- apically (Hardy, 1932, p. 279, fig. 4). The same character on S. aurifrons Macq. brings that species into this subgeneric conception. Two species have three bristles on the posterior clasper, and these bristles are widely separated. The two forms seem to have no other im- portant character in common, and hence cannot be related. S. kappa J. & T. is indigenous to Australia, whilst S. securifera is an introduced form that seems to have some remote relationship with the subgenus Parasar- cophaga. Helicobia australis J. & T. has two bristles, situated towards the apex, but, unlike Parasarcophaga, these are situated wide apart. The only Australian species not accounted for in this paper is Sarcop- haga omikron J. & T., and there seems to be no specimen sufficiently well mounted to permit a study of the claspers. They were omitted from the drawings given by Johnston and Hardy on this account and, although widely distributed, further specimens do not seem to have been discovered since then. As these bristles will play a leading part in the future studies on the Sarcophagid flies, especially for group formation, they have been made a leading feature in the following key:— Key to the Australian Sarcophagid flies, chiefly based on the posterior clasper. 1. With one bristle on the posterior clasper .. .. Be 2. ‘With more than one bristle on the posterior clasper a 4. 10. ir. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. HARDY. 51 Bristles on the posterior clasper piacere more or less basally) gai os: 9. Bristle placed ‘at or beyond half. the length of ‘the NOSUCFIOLSCIASDET ies ec yeid ote 4 ‘ : Sy PRPReTION GClASMOR SEU C AGE, aks ta err Goie)) (aking Varelhe ariuaieh ioe sow ae antilope-group. Anterior clasper simple .. .. .. Nea 12. With three bristles spaced wide apart on the ee orien clasper .. . 3. With only two bristles situated on the apical half of the posterior clasper .... . : 6. Anterior and posterior clasper “equal: in ‘length aR racers kappa Jeter . The Doom of the Bird of Providence, by G. P. Whitley .. .......... #2 Notes on Sarcophagid Flies, by G. H. Hardy .. .. .. . ieee Field Notes on the Yellow-bellied Flying Phalanger, by C. w. Brazenor. The Rate of Growth In Reptiles, by A. S. Le Souef .. .. .. ........ 55 The Fresh-Water Mussels of Australia, by Tom Iredale ok are ©THE AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGIST. ” Communications intended for “The Australian Zoologist” should be typewritten. Authors should state whether proofs and reprints are desired when’ submitting MS. Fifty reprints of any article appearing under a separate — title will be supplied gratis. If more are required, terms may be ascertained on application to the Editor. od Issued by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales oe 3 Biited by oa : A. F. BASSET HULL, C.F.A.0.U., P.BZ8. Vol. 8—Part 2 Sydney, June 28, 1935. 7 2 (Price, 6/-) id All communications to be addressed to the Hon. Secretary, a. Box 2399 M.M., General Post Office, Sydney. Sydney: iat Sydney and Melbourne Pablishing Co., Ltd., 29 Alberta St. London: Wheldon & Wesley, Lid., 2, 3, and 4 Arthur Street, New Oxford Street, W.C.2. Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post 2s a perlodica!. Royal Zuthoaicl Seen of se South Wales. Established 1879. REGISTERED UNDER THE COMPANIES ACT, 1899 (1917). * : Patrons. His Excellency the Governor, Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven, V.C., K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Philip Street, K.C.M.G., Sir Philip Woolcott Game, G.B.E., K.C.B., D.S.O. COUNCIL, 1934-1935. President: Theodore C. Roughley, B.Sc., F.R.Z.S. Vice-Presidents: Neville W. Cayley, F.R.Z.S., Tom Iredale, F.R.Z5., Ernest J. Bryce, F.R.GS., and Ellis Le G. ‘Troughton. Members: A. Spiller Brandon, M.B., BS. Frank Marshall, C.M.G., D.DS. Clifford Coles, C.M.Z:S. E. A. D’Ombrain, M.B., Ch.M. W. W. Froggatt, F.R.ZS. Aubrey Halloran, B.A., LL.B. Officers: Hon. Secretary and Editor: A. F. Basset Hull, C.F.A.0.U., F.R.ZS. Assistant Hon. Secretary: Keith A. Hindwood. Hon. Treasurer: Phillip Shipway. Hon. Librarian: A. S. Le Souef, C.M.ZS. E. F. Pollock, J.P., F.R.G.S. Gilbert P. Whitley, F.R.Z.S. Hon. Auditor: R. J. Stiffe, A-C.A. (Aust.). OFFICERS OF SECTIONS. Anthony Musgrave, F R. Z.S., FES. Avicultural Section. Chairman: Dr. Garnet Halloran. - Vice-Chairman: W. R. Smith. Hon. Secretary: Grantley A. Duncan. Assistant Hon. Secretary: J. Mackie. Committee: E. Hargreaves, C. Spring- all, H. E. Peir. Budgerigar Club. -Chairman: Neville W. Cayley. Vice-Chairman: R. J. Murray. Hon. Secretary: Ernest W. Jones. Committee: J. C. Mackie, S. French, E. C. Heery, Dr. F. Marshall, V. Peters, W. H. Relton. Delegates Representing N.S.W. on Aust. Budgerigar Council: Neville W. Cayley, S: French, Ernest W. Jones. Accredited Representatives in Mel- — bourne: Rev. D. G. Baillie, and — Councillor J. Hocking. Marine Zoological Section. . a Chairman: F, A. MeNeill. my Vice-Chairman: R. A. Johnson. E Hon. Secretary: Miss M. Golding. Ornithological Section. Aue Chairman: N. W. Cayley. Bag Vice-Chairman: J. S. P. Ramsay. me Hon. Secretary: M. S. R. Sharland. Committee: J, S. P. Ramsay, C. Coles, T. Iredale, P. A. Gilbert, and D. Leithhead. THREE NEW SPECIES OF DRYOPIDAE. By H. J. Carter, B.A., F.E.S., and E. H. Zeck. SIMSONIA EBORICA N. Sp. (Plate vii., fig. 3.) Elongate ovate, dark bronze, nitid, underside silvery save for a narrow medial red area; legs and tarsi dark (reddish beneath), post tibiae with a thin line of tomentum, antennae very slender, the basal segments yellow, otherwise dark. Head narrower, eyes less prominent than usual. Prothoraz bilobate, the more convex anterior part separated from the basal by a deeply arched sulcus, extending from anterior angle to beyond the middle, base feebly bisinuate, widest behind middle, sides lightly rounded without sinuation, posterior angles subrectangular, disc rather coarsely and sparsely punctate, a short pre-basal sulcus on each side parallel to sides. Scutellum widely oval. Elytra wider than prothorax at base, shoulders widely rounded, widest behind middle, striate-punctate, striae feebly impressed, strial punctures large, intervals flat and minutely punctate. Sternal area punctate in middle, prosternal process elongate, metasternum sulcate. Dimensions: 2 mm. long. Habitat: N.S.W., Ebor. (F. E. Wilson). Eleven examples sent by our friend, Mr. Wilson, show the smallest species of the genus, readily distinguished from its nearest ally, S. leai C. & Z., by the deeply arched pronotal sulcus and its silvery underside. Holotype in Coll. Wilson. AUSTROLIMNIUS DIEMENENSIS N. Sp. (Plate vii., fig. 1.) Ovate, nitid black above, underside reddish brown, sternal regions darker brown; antennae and legs red. Prothorax rounded and produced at apex, anterior angles sharply defined, sides very lightly rounded, subsinuate behind, base to apex as 27:20, lateral margins entire, hind angles rectangular, foliate margins separated from disc by deep sulcus, slightly widening towards base, extreme border narrowly raised, whole surface (disc and foliation) minutely, densely punctate, medial sulcus strongly marked, widening at base. Elytra as wide as prothorax at base, widest near middle, the three lateral ridges less raised than in A. victoriensis C. & Z., the innermost delimited on the inside by a marked groove and row of punctures; seriate punctures smaller than in A. victoriensis, intervals minutely punctate as on pronotum. Underside in general smooth, segments of abdomen con- cave and pubescent between the raised, glabrous margins, apical segment impunctate. prosternal process rounded, scarcely sinuate. Mid-tibiae of 6 without marginal tooth, with minute spines near base, these becoming wider, blunt teeth on apical half—a fringe of fine hair here—a strong spine at apex, apical segment of tarsi considerably longer than in victoriensis. Dimensions: 1.85 x 0.95 mm. AUC § 1939 80 THREE NEW SPECIES OF DRYOPIDAE. Habitat: Tasmania. Upper Blessington River (Mr. Bryan Plomiey, University of Sydney). Nine examples were captured by Mr. Plomley. It is superficially very like A. victoriensis, but differs in the tibial structure (see figs. 6, 7, 8, 9), the more strongly marked medial sulcus of pronotum, its finer sculpture and wider form. Holotype in Coll. Carter. AUSTROLIMNIUS SUFFUSUS ND. SP. (Plate vii., fig. 2.) Widely obovate, head and prothorax black, the latter with part of lateral margin reddish, elytra with base, wide margins, suture and discal mark black, the rest orange red. Underside and femora brown, antennae, tibiae and tarsi red. Head, eyes large and more closely set than usual, antennae rather stout. Prothorax rounded and produced at apex, front angles obtuse, widest behind middle, sides well rounded, base much wider than apex (8:5), lateral carinae narrow, the sublateral carina Serrate and converging anteriorly from about posterior third, leaving a subhorizontal area, he- tween carinae, of a pale colour (1), extreme border finely serrate, medial sulcus shallow, wide in middle, narrowing anteriorly and posteriorly, but widening again at base; surface very minutely and closely punctate. Elytra rather suddenly widened at shoulders, widest behind middle, carinae narrow and little raised, seriate punctures small, those in 4th row, at sides of innermost carinae scarcely apparent; margins strongly serrate; tarsl unusually stout. Prosternal process rather large, sinuate at apical third. Dimensions: 1.4 x 0.75 mm. Habitat: New South Wales, Hastings River and Kindee Creek (H. Davidson and H. J. Carter), Williams River (the late Mr. J. Hopson), Sydney (L. Wassell). This is the species noted in Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1930, p. 190, as possibly a variety of A. luridus C. & Z. A long series, how- ever, taken recently in the Hastings River at Long Flat, near Wauchope, shows it to be a very distinct species, not only in colour, but in many structural details, especially the sublateral carina and the form of the pronotal sulcus. Holotype in Coll. Carter. EXPLANATION OF PLATE VII. 1. Austrolimnius diemenensis. 2. Austrolimnius suffusus. 3. Simsonia eborensis. 4. Sternal process of Austrolimnius suffusus. X 42. 5. Sternal process of Austrolimnius diemenensis. xX 42. 6. Fore tibia and tarsus of male A. diemenensis. x 93. 7. Middle tibia and tarsus of male A. diemenensis. x 93. 8. Hind tibia and tarsus of male A. diemenensis. x 93. 9. Middle tibia and tarsus of male Austrolimnius victoriensis C. & Z. x 93. 10. Sternal process of Simsonia eborensis. xX 42. Figures 6, 7, 8 and 9 drawn from micro slides. (1) This character also occurs to a less extent in A. politus King. (Vide pl. ii., fig. 15, of our Monograph). ict! NOTES ON THE HABITS OF AUSTRALIAN BATS. By A. J. MARSHALL. Despite the comparative abundance of both insect and fruit-eating bats in Australia, very little is known of their habits. These notes are, therefore, presented with some regret that they are not more extensive, and in the hope that they may both supplement our knowledge and pro- vide data of general interest. It is not generally realized the high positicn which bats occupy in the class mammalia, for next after man and the animals nearest allied to him, come bats—divided primarily into two great sub-orders, the fruit-eating Megachiroptera and the smaller insec- tivorous Microchiroptera. ; Fruit-bats, known to most people as “fiying foxes’ because of a superficial facial resemblance to the wily canine, usually assemble in vast camps in trees in secluded areas, at times in hundreds of thousands. Visiting orchards and farms nocturnally, they cause many thousands of pounds worth of damage annuaily, and are especially adapted for these arboreal depredations in that they possess exceedingly powerful feet and long curved thumb-claws for climbing and hanging on. The indigenous fruits most favoured in the coast areas are lilly-pilly (Eugenia) and the various figs (Ficus). These essentially frugivorous animals have an extensive gape and teeth adapted for the nipping off and crushing of fruit, the canines being well developed for piercing and the molars flat and grooved for pulping fruit. The Microchiroptera or insectivorous bats are an extensive group, and display many different kinds of specialization, and have sharp-cusped molars adapted for breaking up the hard body cases of insects. The senses of the small insectivorous bats have provided an evergreen subject for controversy, especially in view of some amazing experiments which have been conducted overseas. Bats liberated with their eyes sealed with wax, in a room crossed and recrossed with wires, flew between the strands without touching them. Others liberated in a many windowed room, obviously endeavouring to escape, did not dash themselves against the glass as birds would have done under similar circumstances. My own observations upon some bats liberated in a room showed that never once did the bats fly at the panes, but kept circling around until they became tired and settled. It has been suggested that the explanation of this curious phenomenon is that the wing-beats of the bats set air currents in motion between them and the wires or window-panes, these being reflected instantaneously and received by the numerous highly specialised nerve-endings situated among the hair follicles, especially in the nose-leaves. The bats are thus warned of the presence of opaque objects after sight has failed to appraise them of their existence. The saying “blind as a bat,” however, is misleading, as it is impossible that bats could capture their tiny swift flying prey if deprived of sight, as a sense of smell could not assist in tracing swiftly moving aerial objects leaving no definite line of odour. While the hearing of bats is extremely keen, it is probably upon eyesight that they mostly depend. Because of such peculiarities, and the difficulty of securing specimens, bats have always had a fascination for workers in mammalogy. During the visit of the Harvard Museum Expedition in 1931-32, Dr. Glover M. Allen very kindly invited me to accompany him on a collecting trip to the North 82 NOTES ON THE HABITS OF AUSTRALIAN BATS. Coast in search of local species of bats, in which he has a special interest. In acknowledging my great appreciation of the pleasant and instructive association thus provided, thanks are also expressed to Mr. E. Le G. Troughton, for looking through these notes during a week-end spent at the Society’s Cabin. Having returned in December, 1931, from Western Australia, where the mammal results had proved disappointing, Dr. Allen was naturally anxious to choose a promising field for a last attempt to secure some of the local flying mammals. Kempsey, a large mid-North Coast town, was chosen as the base of operations, and on arrival we heard that there were several large caves in the district which might confidently be expected to contain quantities of the small insectivorous bats. Our first trip was to the Sherwood Caves, located some twelve miles west of Kempsey, which have for years been known to local people as the haunt of numerous bats, though few persons interviewed seemed to have visited them personally. Quantities of bat- guano have at various times been brought out, shipped to Sydney and sold, the prices realized being said to have repaid the trouble involved. The caves are situated about two hundred feet up a steep and heavily timbered limestone hillside; the entrance is comparatively small and would easily pass unnoticed by a vigilant observer. Nesting in the vicinity were Magpies, Nankeen Kestrels and Soldier-birds, and almost every tree was hedecked with orchids of several varieties; “tongues,” ‘“rats-tails,” “pencils” and “grass” (Cymbidium) were common, as well as several species quite foreign to me. Elkhorns, staghorns and “birds-nests” grew to enormous dimensions high up in the larger tree-trunks. The lower vegetation was largely composed of stinging nettles, a bewildering variety of tangling vines and at least two species of very unpleasant stinging trees. Guarded by such a formidable entanglement, it is small wonder that the bats continue to flourish in their secluded retreat, even in these more closely settled times. Descending about fifteen feet we reached the main chamber, a large dimly lit cavern, from which branched many ante-chambers, holes and tunnels, the floor of which were covered with Several inches of guano. The atmosphere within the caverns was heavy with a particularly “batty” odour, and several dead bats were found in various stages of decay on the cavern floor, the skulls of which were taken for identification. As we entered the first cave several bats quickly detached themselves from the roof and made for the dark inner recesses, one which unwisely lingered being shot by Dr. Allen. It was later found to be the Australian form of Miniopterus blepotis, an interesting species whose range extends to the Malayan Archipelago. In the darker recesses, where flashlights flickered eerily, bats in hundreds dropped swiftly from their roosting places, and fluttered about wildly, some even brushing our faces with their soft membraneous wings as they sped past. Shooting became unnecessary, as we merely stood still in a narrow part of a long cave and beat the bats to the ground with our hats as they passed. Bats in this portion of the caves—damp, musty, and pitch-dark were apparently all adults of M. australis, a smaller re- lative of M. blepotis, and of the Horse-shoe Bat (Rhinolophus mega- ohylus)—so named because of the distinct horse-shoe shaped nose-leaf. So different are the two species in appearance that they were readily distinguishable, even when flying from 15 to 20 feet away. The noise of MARSHALL. ro thousands of wings in a confined space, such as a cave of this nature, may be readily likened to the rush of falling water. At the end of the farthest cavity from the entrance we encountered hundreds of slightly smaller bats gathered in clusters, in a small dark cavern whose only communication with the main cave was by way of a long narrow rising tunnel. As the bats flew out, I secured a number with my hat, and then penetrated further where the bats allowed me to pluck them by the handful from the roof and walls and thrust them biting and “ticking” indignantly into a collecting bag. Bats thus collected were all found to be immature “Horse-shoes,” their age estimated by Dr. Allen to be about six weeks. The sexes were approximately equal, and it seemed apparent that the young had been segregated in one camp by their mothers, who doubtless returned at regular intervals to suckle or other- wise feed them; all the female Horse-shoe bats which were collected had distended milk glands, and none carried any baby bats clinging to their fur. Two baby Rhinolophus which I kept, to the alarm of the house maid in my room at the Hotel Kempsey, though quite unfettered did not at- tempt to escape either day or night through the open doors or windows. Instead, they merely hung themselves up head downwards on a picture rail, curtain or window blind, and soon learnt to answer me, and became greatly agitated when I ‘“tick-ticked’” to them; one would even allow me to handle him freely without attempting to struggle and bite as did the others. Both bats hung in the room for some days and were ultimately found dead, still hanging up in the usual manner; they had evidently been more dependent on the parent for food than their appearance sug- gested. Their usual call was a rapid series of about six thin squeaks similar to those uttered by very young passerine birds, but series of up to ten “ticks” were repeatedly given. These immature Horse-shoe bats were easily identified from the adults by their smaller size, pale coloration, and, of course, enlarged cartilaginous wing-joints. When a “Horse-shoe” bat wishes to “hang-up” it flies straight towards its objective, and when within a few inches of it suddenly gives a swift sideways and upward jerk, thus bringing the tail and claws in the direction the head formerly faced; the sharp little claws then catch and hold the roughened rocks to which they habitually cling. In a room I found that captive bats acted in precisely the same manner, except that the choice of landing places on the walls was limited to the beading and picture rails. They rarely attempted to land on the smooth plaster, their eye-sight in full day-light enabling them to perceive the smoothness of the walls, and to select the rails and beading upon which they alighted. When in natural surroundings they have no difficulty in hanging from the rough limestone rocks, by even one leg, and they often revolve Slowly in half circles while suspended in this manner. They are able to climb sideways quite dexterously, but always seem to prefer to climb up- wards—tail end first, and the thumb claws, as well as the feet, are used extensively for climbing. The toilet of a Horse-shoe bat is a very interesting performance. Hanging head downwards by one foot—usually the right—it scratches or combs the back of its head, back and chest with the free foot working so rapidly that it is difficult to follow the action. It frequently stretches its flexible wings to the utmost and runs its nose along the soft membranes, | Giligently nuzzling backwards and forwards the while. When sleeping, 84 NOTES ON THE HABITS OF AUSTRALIAN BATS. the wings may be folded so that from the outside they appear as thin lines along the forearms, but usually part of the membrane is drawn across so that only the eartips and the tiny pink nose are visible. In colour, the adult Horse-shoe bats are rich chocolate brown with the fur on the back silver-tipped. The Miniopterus, which on the average did not seem to avoid the partially lit caves as did the Horse-shoe bats, are easily recognised by their elongated terminal wing-joints and short ears. The tail is mem- braned to the extreme end. They usually hang in rows along a wall and when wishing to leave merely loose their hold and fly directly outwards, never dropping more than an inch at the most. They rise from the eround quite freely by first raising themselves on their wings and legs and giving a quick flap upwards. If, however, they are accidently knocked upside down they experience great difficulty in righting themselves. When captured they bite and claw furiously, but their gape is not extensive enough to allow them to cause injury. The call note of Miniopterus australis is a series of three to ten short metallic “ticks,” usually uttered when the bat is in flight. Those col- lected were all mature, and the majority were males, whose stomach con- tents seemed to be mostly small insects. Unlike Rhinolophus, these bats will frequently climb upward, head foremost, a thing the other species collected always avoided doing. Considering that at least several thousands of bats frequent these caves, it seems probable that on leaving their roosts at dusk in view of the intense competition some would have to travel very many miles to secure an adequate supply of insect food. Pondering over the vast num- bers of bats, one dimly realizes what an enormous amount of harmful night-fiying insects a single camp of bats must consume. Our next objective was the Willy Willy Caves, located about 20 miles from Kempsey; the up-river trip being notable for the amazing green- ness of the surrounding country. Chestnut-breasted Finches were abundant, whilst among the gum-bordered Willy Willy Creek, Blue-faced and Striped Honey-eaters were plentiful, and a beautiful black male Koel Cuckoo (“Cooee-Bird”) was observed diligently feeding his sombrely-clad mate on Moreton Bay figs. Climbing a steep and heavily timbered hill- side we searched among stinging-nettles, lantana, vines and stinging- trees, ultimately discovering the cave entrance—a hole about 10 feet across—running apparently to the very depths of the earth. Trees were felled for use as ladders and we descended with flashlights, collecting pistols and other gear. These caves, apparently more promising than the first, failed to produce a Single bat, though there were obvious traces of recent occupation by large numbers—such are the uncertainties of a bat- hunter’s life! The silence in the caves was quite oppressive, and the only living ereatures seen were large pallid moths and huge spiders, but even these were scarce. The moths appear to dwell on the floor amongst the guano, whilst the spiders scuttle upside down along the roofs of the caverns, their eyes gleaming brightly when the flashlight is directed towards them. The caves in some places are like a maze, my wanderings once bringing me directly above the narrow sloping passage we had climbed down. Why, I wonder, do the bats come and go in this manner; at times occupying certain caves, and at times deserting them? Migration, per- haps, but it is also possible that these particular caves were used by MARSHALL, - 85 certain species whilst hibernating. We visited the caves in December; in July, possibly, there would have been an entirely different result. Glowing reports as to the collecting possibilities of the Morparabah caves, situated some 35 miles from Kempsey, resulted in another visit. Arriving at a small dairy farm at the foot of the range, the taxi-driver received vague directions from a dairy hand as to the whereabouts of the caves; but although the range was searched for hours, we were forced to return empty handed, with our worthy driver quite exhausted. The following day, however, we located the caves, climbed down the 25 feet entrance-hole and observed some beautiful miniature limestone formations, but did not see more than a dozen bats, which we were un- able to bag. These particular caves are situated in a dense patch of “rain-forest” which was frequented by the Lyre Bird, Wonga, and Top- knot pigeons; the latter feeding in flocks upon the fruit of a large parasitic fig which was extremely abundant in the scrub. Along the oak-clad hillsides kangaroo grass grew extensively and grass trees assumed large proportions. Rock wallabies, and both red and grey kangaroos were seen, and unmistakable signs of bandicoots were noticed. The Forest Kingfisher (Halcyon macleayi) and the Square- tailed Cuckoo was also noted in the timber on the mountain side, whilst high up above soared a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles, and Grey Goshawks and Nankeen Kestrels patrolled the country below. Only three Fruit-bats (Pteropus poliocephalus) were collected; these were all females and were shot whilst feeding in a tree almost in the middle of the town of Kempsey. I noticed that when feeding near houses these voracious bats did not fight or screech excessively, and they were only located by the persistent dropping of fruit and pulped seeds, and by the heavy flapping of wings as they alighted. Although we went to several places where fruit bats were reported to be camping in “millions,’ we always discovered that we were some weeks too late. Apparently the bats had practically “eaten out” this district and gone where the crops of indigenous and cultivated fruits were prob- ably more abundant. As Fruit-bats usually feed among the leaves on the outer branches of the fig trees—possibly where fruit is most plentiful, and from where it is easier to “take off’—little difficulty was experienced in collecting them. Located by the falling pulp, when the flashlight was directed towards them, they usually looked straight down at us, their eyes gleaming yellow in the rays. Those wounded were extremely difficult to kill; in fact, one injured bat refused to fall, and was found dead on the ground among the fallen fruit pulp next morning. Fruit-bats, like possums, occasionally come to a sudden end if a favourite feeding tree is erowing near electric wires, with which they often come in contact and are electrocuted. Dr. Allen was amazed to learn that he was able to fire a gun with impunity in the centre of this large Australian town, remarking that such a happening in an American town of similar size, an ambulance, a couple of police squads, and possibly the local Fire Brigade would be on hand within a couple of minutes—imagining, perhaps, that a “gang-war” was in progress! At regular intervals along parts of the picturesque Hawkesbury River there occur small fresh-water swamps; the haunt of many interesting creatures. As night falls, Black Ducks quietly descend upon the swamps to feed, and the quiet is then unbroken save for an occasional splash, the 86 NOTES ON THE HABITS OF AUSTRALIAN BATS. peculiar notes of the “Dab-chick,” and the high-pitched cries of the tiny fluttering bats overhead. One evening at dusk I took a long shot at.a pair of ducks rising hurriedly from a swamp, and whilst the peace-shattering roar of the 12- guage frightened every bird and rabbit within half a mile to cover, I found that the bats continued to wheel and circle overhead as if nothing had happened. Perhaps it is that their ears are attuned only to high- pitched sounds—the loud report of the shot-gun being quite lost upon them. Specimens were required to determine the species, and in three shots I was fortunate enough to secure representatives of two genera: Chalinolobus geuldi and Nyctinomus norfolkensis. As there are no caves in the vicinity, these bats probably dwelt in the many ancient barns and homesteads in the vicinity. These bats were rarely, if ever, noted away from the swamps, and appear to take the place of the swamp-haunting Swallows at dusk. Bats, like nearly all other living things, are infested with small parasites—these are Known as Nycteribids, which are crab-like wingless flies. The Horse-shoe bats which we captured at Kempsey had parasites which seemed enormous, compared with their hosts, and, it would seem, could quite easily be discarded were it not that the Nycteribids’ feet are specialiy adapted to moving with extraordinary speed amongst the bats’ fur. These bats, upon which at least three species are parasitic, did not seem to resent their presence, nor did the Fruit-bats either, which possessed at least two species—one of which was extremely large. OCCASIONAL NOTE. Mr. Albert De Lestang, of Bourke Town, North Queensland, recently forwarded a skin and skull of Leichhardt’s Hare-wallaby (Lagorchestes conspicillatus leichhardti) for identification. As this animal is rare, and we have practically no data as to its habits, Mr. De Lestang on request gave the following field notes:— “It is always found on its own in the low tussock plains, and among the low spinifex covered ridges at the foot of the Gulf of Carpentaria coastal ranges; also in the small valleys throughout the limestone country of these parts, and occasionally in the grassy open scrubs of the high- lands.” A. S. LE Sovuer. 87 NOTES ON AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN DIPTERA. By JoHN R. MALLOCH. Family SyRPHIDAE. GRAPTOMYzZA Wiedemann. Nova Dipt. Gen., 16, 1820. GRAPTOMYZA DODDI Ferguson. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., li., 542, 1926. The female before me has the fourth tergite with a central black line and the third with a trace of a similar line, but the peculiar black W-shaped mark on the posterior third of the mesonotum apparently places it here rather than in plumifer, Ferguson. I have carefully com- pared the two Australian species recorded here with the Oriental species of the genus available to me in the United States National Museum and consider they are congeneric. The hind tibiae have usually a group of black setulae on the apical half of the anterior surface in all the species, and this is particularly evident in the species now recorded. Habitat: Queensland, Kuranda (F. P. Dodd). One female. GRAPTOMYZA FLAVICOLLIS Ferguson. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., li., 541, 1926. This very pretty little species, originally described from a Single female from Cairns district, is the only one in which the hind femur has distinct anteroventral spines on the apical half, as recorded by Ferguson. This is not sufficient to justify the removal of the species to another genus. The hind tibial setulae are very indistinct in the female now before me. ; One of the most striking characters of the genus, and one met with in all its species, consists of the oval discal depression of the scutellum. Habitat: Queensland, Eungella, near Mackay; altitude, 2,000 feet; March, 1929 (F. H. Taylor). Family SAPROMYZIDAE. I present below the descriptions of two new species and record the occurrence in Queensland of the peculiar genus Ichthyomyia previously known exclusively from New Guinea. SAPROMYZA XENIA, N. Sp. ?—Head black, the ocellar triangle and frontal orbits glossy, the interfrontalia shining, and showing yellowish below the dark surface sheen, as does also the face and to a more marked degree the lower occiput, the face grey dusted and slightly shining, faintly convex. Anterior orbital short and fine, not as long as the short ocellars or post- verticals. Antennae normal, the longest hairs on the aristae barely half as long as the width of third antennal segment. Thorax glossy black, with hardly a trace of dust, the scutellum velvety deep black, the apex shining black. Mesonotum with three pairs of strong postsutural dorsocentrals, six irregular series of fine intradorso- central hairs, one strong pair of prescutellar acrostichals, no bristle lateral of the supra-alar, two notopleurals, and two postalars; sternopleurals two; scutellars four. Legs testaceous yellow, fore coxae and femora black. Fore femur 88 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN DIPTERA. : without comb; all tibiae with a preapical dorsal bristle, mid tibia with one apical ventral bristle; hind femur without anteroventral bristles. Wings greyish hyaline, veins pale. Inner cross-vein close to middle of discal cell, penultimate section of fourth.vein about four-fifths as long as ultimate one. Abdomen testaceous yellow, much shrivelled in type so that the mark- ings, if any, are not distinguishable, the tergites with rather strong apical bristles. Halteres pale yellow. Length: 4 mm. Habitat: Queensland, Millaa Millaa (F. H. Taylor). This species will run down to caption 34 in my key to the Australian Species of the genus, but the arista, though long haired, is not plumose, there is no well developed bristle laterad of the supra-alar, and the uniformly shining black mesonotum and velvety black scutellum with its shining apex distinguishes the species from any other met with so far in _ Australia. SAPROMYZA PICTIGERA, N. Sp. ?—Head testaceous, more distinctly yellow on anterior margin of frons, the latter the only part free of dense grey dust except the black spots, the posterior extremities of the undusted part dark brown. A black dot at base of each of the frontal and vertical bristles, largest at outer vertical and posterior orbital, a large dark mark behind middle of each eye, a smaller one below each eye, a dark brown mark between each antenna and eye, and the upper margin of face and to a less marked extent a small mark on centre of epistome brown. Antennae testaceous yellow, third segment with a fuscous mark at middle below; aristae fuscous, yellow at bases; palpi fuscous. rons at vertex nearly half the head width and over 1.5 times as wide as long, the grey dusted orbits fused with the ocellar triangle at anterior ocellus, convergent anteriorly and not extend- ing to anterior margin, the two pairs of bristles well developed, the anterior about half as long as posterior pair; postverticals about half as long as the proclinate ocellars. Eye narrowed below, slightly emarginate on posterior margin of lower half; gena about as high as width of third antennal segment, the latter over 1.5 times as long as wide, rounded at apex; aristae short haired; face slightly convex, entirely grey dusted. Thorax brownish testaceous, the humeri and apex of scutellum yellowish, the whole covered with dense grey dust, the mesonotum with numerous dark brown marks of irregular shape and smaller dots of same colour at bases of the hairs and bristles, the pleura variegated with dark brown, the scutellum sooty blackish-brown on basal two-thirds except a narrow stripe near each lateral edge, and the apex white dusted. Dorso- centrals consisting of three postsutural pairs, the acrostichals fine and irregularly biseriate, the prescutellar pair well developed; sternopleurals 2. Legs testaceous-yellow, coxae, femora except their apices, a ring near base and another at apex of each tibia black. Fore femur without comb, all tibiae with well developed preapical dorsal bristle; hind femur without anteroventral bristles. Wings yellowish-hyaline, with a dark brown mark at base from basad of the humeral cross-vein on costa to over the anal lobe, a black spot filling the stigma, and the inner cross-vein slightly brown clouded, the field between the dark costal marks white and the veins there pale yellow. Inner cross vein at middle of discal cell; ultimate section of fourth vein not over 1.5 times as long as penultimate. MALLOCH. 89 Halteres cream coloured. Abdomen testaceous, densely pale grey dusted, with a dark brown spot at base of each of the apical bristles and a subquadrate mark of the same colour on the anterior half of each side of each tergite that is connected usually with one or more of the apical spots. Tergites except first and apical each with short hind marginal bristles. Length: 3.5 mm. Habitat: Queensland, Tambourine Mt. (C. Deane). This very strikingly coloured species is readily distinguished from. any known to me from Australia by the presence of the two conspicuous dark costal marks on the wing, the peculiar bicoloured field of the wing, and the spotted head, thorax, and abdomen. I published a key to the species of this genus in 1928 (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., liii., pt. 4, 355), and in it the above species will run down to caption 36. The longest hairs on the aristae being distinctly longer than its basal diameter. It is placed in the first section at that point, this section con- taining but one species, ocellaris Malloch. From ocellaris it is readily separated by the fact that the latter has no black costal marks on the wing, but is furnished with dark reticulations on their entire surface, the frons has two brown vittae, the face has two dark spots, and the mesono- tum has four brown vittae; the antennae are also entirely black and there are a number of other distinguishing characters. Genus Metanina Malloch. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., lii., 412, 1927. MELANINA mAJOR Malloch. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., lii., 413, 1927. Habitat: N.S.W., St. Albans. Two specimens (F. H. Taylor). Genus IcutHyvomyia de Meijere. Tijdschr. v. Ent., lvii.. 382. 1914. This genus was originally described from New Guinea and has not since been recorded. In my key to the genera of Australia it will run down to caption 16. At this point it most closely agrees with the second section in which falls Australina Malloch, but the head is quite different in structure, the face being remarkably conically produced as shown in Fig.1. There is no doubt as to the close affinity of the genus to Australina, but I consider they are entitled to acceptance as distinct. The general structures are similar and the wing markings much the same in the two genotypes. és IcHTHYOMYIA CYPRINUS de Meijere. A testaceous coloured species, with fuscous markings on head as shown in the accompanying figure, the thorax largely brownish fuscous, the dorsum grey dusted and with four dark vittae; the legs testaceous, with their femora fuscous, and the wings infuscated, hyaline along their hind margins. Habitat: Queensland, Kuranda (F. P. Dodd). One female. I have examined the type specimen of this species which was sub- mitted to me by Dr. de Meijere when I was working on the Philippine species some years ago and am confident the present specimen is refer- able here. ‘The life-history of the species is unknown, but Australina geniseta Malloch, described from Darwin, N.T., was reared from larvae that were associated with coccids on Pandanus, and it is not unlikely that this association will be found to be a normal one, though it is possible 90 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN DIPTERA. the larvae are merely scavengers, feeding on the excretions of the scale insect. Very little is known of the larval habits of the members of the family, and it would be of interest to discover the habits of this and related genera aS the re- cords of the few Sapromyzidae available point to their being scavengers, the larvae feeding on or in decaying leaves or humus. Habitat: Holotype, N.S.W.; Sydney, 21.8.21 (Health Department). Family DROSOPHILIDAE. Fig. 1, Head of LEUCOPHENGA REGINA, Nn. Sp. Ichthyomyia cyprinus,