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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.
Perdita heliotropii heliotropii Cockerell
Cockerell collected the types of heliotropii at Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, on
October 6, 1899, and the species apparently has not been recorded since, except
by Michener from California. It is generally common everywhere that Heliotropium occurs and is remarkably constant in color characters except in central California. This species is remarkable for the strangely modified labial palpi (fig. 521). This curious structure is probably a functional modification to help in the gathering of pollen from the flowers of Heliotropium. Except for overlooking the palpal characters and the unusually stiff and dark-colored galeae, Cockerell has given an adequate description for the recognition of the species.
Perdita heliotropii perducta, n. subsp.
Female.—Agrees with typical heliotropii, but with the yellow markings more extensive.
Subantennal marks present and about as large as the supraclypeal marks, or these together
with lateral marks sometimes almost confluent so that face becomes mainly yellow below level
of antennae. Pronotum with a large dark mark on the flanks, but the usual band across the disk
evanescent or absent. Abdomen with the dark bands a little narrower than in heliotropii, and
with a fifth band present at junction of tergites 5-6. Length, 4.5-5 mm.; anterior wing, 3.2 mm.
Male.—Face entirely yellow below level of antennae; abdomen tending to be yellow with six
or seven dark bands, the seventh more or less developed and more brownish than the others; light
and dark bands about equal. Length, 4-4.5 mm.; anterior wing, 2.8-3 mm
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