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Extracted from: Timberlake P.H., (1958). A Revisional Study of The Bees of the Genus Perdita F. Smith, with Special Reference to the Fauna of the Pacific Coast (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) Part III. University of Caifornia Press Berkeley and Los Angeles 1958, Volume 14, No. 5, pp. 303-410, plates 4-15.
This little species was described from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where it was found at flowers of Chamaesaracha coronopus, and was later recorded by Cockerell from Las Vegas, Koswell, and High Rolls, New Mexico, the dates of capture ranging from June 11 to August 26. Female.—Head and thorax dark blue-green, the propodeum blue. Mandibles except red tips, clypeus except a pair of minute dark dots, and large, triangular lateral marks, a little higher than wide and reaching level of antennae, white. Labrum brown, with margins more or less testaceous. Supraclypeal area black. Collar of pronotum broadly, cuneate marks on hind margin of disk, and tubercles white. Abdomen ferruginous. Legs brown, the apex of front and middle femora, their tibiae and tarsi except blotch on posterior side of tibiae, and knees of hind legs pale yellow. Antennae brown, the flagellum tinged with yellow beneath, the scape white beneath and at base. Tegulae hyaline, becoming white at base. Wings almost whitish hyaline, the nervures pale testaceous, the subcosta except toward base and margins of stigmas pale brownish.
Head rotund, slightly broader than long. Mandibles tapering and acute at apex. Proboscis rather short, the galeae as long as the stipites, and the maxillary palpi reduced to one joint. Facial foveae moderately broad and reaching from lower level of antennal sockets about halfway to level of anterior ocellus. Stigma nearly as broad as first submarginal cell, and the parts of marginal cell beneath and beyond stigma nearly equal. Pygidial plate moderately wide, with the sides converging to the rather narrow and notched apex. Head and thorax polished, with very fine sparse punctures, the frons delicately tessellate and nearly impunctate. Pubescence thin and white, the hair of mesonotum fine and erect except for a prescutellar band of appressed mosslike hair. Length, about 4 mm.; anterior wing, 2.9 mm.
Male.—Similar to female, but bluer, and with mandibles except tips, labrum, and almost the entire face below level of antennae white. Lateral marks of face extending a short distance above antennae and the blue of frons intruding briefly between each one of them and the adjacent subantennal mark. Anterior edge of undersurface of head narrowly whitish. Front and middle legs sometimes nearly all pale yellowish except a dark blotch on posterior side of the femora and middle tibiae, or the legs sometimes more extensively blackish, with the light part of middle pair almost restricted to the knees. Scape of antennae white except a small dark spot above at apex, the flagellum brown above and yellowish beneath. Tegulae and wings as in female.
Head somewhat broader than long, the labrum distinctly notched beneath at apex. Mandibles acute and reaching far margin of proboscidial fossa. Sculpture and pubescence as in the female, but the punctures of frons a little more evident and the prescutellar band of hair little developed. Subgenital plate narrowly triangular and longer than wide, with the apex narrow and rounded. Caulis deeply bilobate above, exposing the volsellae; parameral lobes very broad and deeply incised close to the lower border to produce a slender, tapering, acute lobe; fused body of sagittae fusiform and subacute at apex. Length, 3.4 mm.; anterior wing, 2.4-2.7 mm.
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