Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/276

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272
FOREIGN BEES.

entomologists, to describe it more in detail. In its general form it is broad and depressed, the colour shining black, the abdomen being duller than the thorax, the latter clothed in front with short black hairs, and the sides and extremity of the abdomen are fringed with longer hairs of the same colour. The eyes are of a dull white, and approaching each other at the hinder part of the head, but separated by a considerably wider space than those of X. latipes. Antennæ black, the basal joint not dilated as in the species just named; legs black, clothed with long hair, the anterior tarsi of a dirty white colour, the basal joint very thin, flat, and broad, (but not so dilated as in X. latipes,) and furnished, especially on the outer edge, with a thick brush of brown hairs, the terminal joints flat and brown, with a similar brush on the outer margin, the brush on the inner margin of these joints being much shorter and thicker than in X. latipes. The wings are nearly opaque at the base, but become gradually more transparent at the tips; the former portion with an intense violet gloss, which is gradually shaded off to a coppery green.[1] (In X. latipes the wings have a green gloss at the base, which is shaded off into a purple bronze.) The clypeus is black, with the exception of a very minute pale spot on each side, close to the base of the mandibles.

This species is from India, and the individual figured

  1. Mr. Westwood is of opinion that the colour of the gloss of the wing affords a very good, although hitherto neglected, specific character in this difficult genus.