Extracted from: Cockerell (1909). New American Bees. The Entomologist vol. VIII
Length about 8 mm., the abdomen fusiform and rather slender;
belongs to the subgenus .Xanthidimn. Head broad, orbits not
greatly diverging above; face with appressed silvery hair, not concealing
the surface; mandibles simple; mandibles except apex,
labrum, clypeus (a black sutural spot on each side), quadrate supraclypeal
patch, and large lateral face-marks (filling in the whole area
between clypeus and eyes, and extending from upper corners of
clypeus, touching the antennal sockets, to a point some distance
above antennrn) all pale yellow; a narrow yellow stripe, becoming
reddish, extends up posterior orbital margins, and there is a ferruginous
patch above summit of eye; third antenna} joint scarcely
over half length of fourth; scape moderately swollen, yellow in front,
black behind, the junction of the colours reddish; flagellum stout and
long, red, with the first five joints strongly blackened above, and the
third to fifth strongly undulate; apical joint obtuse; thorax black,
with the hair all white, especially conspicuous on pleura; scutellum,
four rather obscure stripes on mesothorax, part of prothorax above,
and a large spot on anterior part of pleura, all ferruginous; tubercles
pale yellow suffused with red; mesothorax entirely black; tegulrn
shining hyaline testaceous, with two pale yellow spots; wings dusky
at apex, otherwise nearly clear; stigma dark ferruginous; b. n. going
a long distance basad of t. m. ; second s. m. large, broad above,
receiving the r. n. at the beginning of its last third; third t. c.
abruptly bent; legs red, without yellow, except that the anterior
femora are suffusedly yellowish in front; a little black at base of
anterior femora, more on middle femora, and hind femora broadly
black beneath except at apex; abdomen rather well punctured; first
segment black basally, and with the broad band red without any
yellow; second segment red, with an exceedingly broad lemon-yellow
band, narrowly interrupted in the middle (by a longitudinal red band)
and notched at each upper lateral corner; segments three to six reel
with yellow bands, on three and four widely interrupted, on six a
median patch, not reaching the sides of the segment; apical plate
broad, strongly notched; venter red, suffused with blackish, and with
a large diamond-shaped yellow spot at extreme apex. In the tables
of Rocky Mountain Nomada runs to N. vicinalis, Cresson, from which
it differs by the large lateral face-marks, first abdominal segment
without yellow, &c.
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