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Extracted from: Timberlake P.H., (1962). 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 V. University of California Publications in Entomology Editors, Volume 28, No. 1, pp. 1-124.
P. rhois is the commonest species of the genus in the cismontane region of southern California, and it is strongly polylectic in habits. I have taken it at flowers of twelve native and five introduced plants, shrubs, or trees. The type locality of rhois is San Diego, California, where it was taken by Cockerell on Rhus laurina, Aug. 4, 1901
Female.—Head and thorax dark green; mandibles except red tips, labrum except often more or less dark at base, clypeus, small and transversely triangular lateral marks, collar of pronotum narrowly, and tubercles, pale yellow. Abdomen fuscous; venter yellow; rather broad, straight yellow band at base of tergites 2 to 5, that on tergite 2 enclosed, others often open at basal corners of segments. In extreme light examples basal half of tergite 1 also yellow. Legs fuscous or brownish; apex of front femora, front tibiae except a more or less broad stripe on posterior side, front tarsi, apex of middle femora, anterior side of middle tibiae, and sometimes trochanters of all legs, yellow. Antennae brownish fuscous, scape pale yellow beneath, flagellum brownish yellow beneath. Tegulae hyaline, with yellow base. Wings milky hyaline, nervures pale yellowish, margins of stigma and subcosta slightly brownish.
Head somewhat broader than long. Mandibles with a small inner tooth. Proboscis rather short, galeae in repose reaching hardly more than halfway to base of stipites. Facial f oveae about their own width from margin of eyes and reaching from upper level of antenna! sockets about halfway, or a little more, to level of anterior ocellus. Pterostigma large, broadly rounded beneath, widest a little behind middle, and somewhat wider than first submarginal cell; part of marginal cell beyond stigma as broad as long and shorter than part beneath. Pygidial plate about as long as wide at base, with sides converging to narrow and rounded apex. Head and mesonotum tessellate, but rather shiny; face with moderately close minute punctures, mesonotum with sparse punctures. Pubescence whitish, fine and erect, short and moderately thin on face and mesonotum, longer and denser on cheeks and underside of thorax. Length: 4.5-5 mm.; anterior wing, 3.1-3.5 mm.
Male.—Head and thorax dark green or blue-green; underside of head, cheeks except posterior third, proboscis, mandibles except red tips, labrum, face to level of foveae, pronotum except a broad dark band on disk and a short dark line in crease of upper part of flanks, prosternum, mesosternum except a rather narrow oblique band on episternum from tegula to middle coxa, lower half or more of flanks of propodeum, and often a small spot on anterior corners of meso-scutum, yellow. Abdomen yellow; tergite 1 and a more or less broad band at apex of tergites 2 to 6, fuscous. Legs yellow, apex of hind femora above, outer side of hind tibiae, and hind tarsi, brown or fuscous; sometimes a dark spot on middle femora and a line on middle tibiae. Antennae yellow, with a fuscous spot on outer side of pedicel, and several following joints often slightly brownish above. Tegulae and wings as in female.
Head somewhat broader than long; inner orbits slightly diverging above. Cheeks somewhat broader than eyes, well rounded beneath, and rather rarely with a minute tubercle anteriorly. Facial foveae punctiform. Mandibles tapering from base and reaching somewhat beyond far margin of proboscidial fossa. Flanks of pronotum about normally impressed. Head and thorax finely tessellate and shining, dark vertex more strongly tessellate and somewhat duller than mesonotum; punctures of mesonotum very sparse and fine, those of face also sparse and hardly visible except by strongly oblique light. Pubescence whitish, and about as in female. Tergite 7with a short and truncate medio-apical lobe. Subgenital plate hardly longer than wide and rounded at apex; discal pubescence very fine and slightly fringing the margin on each side of apex. Dorsal lobes of caulis acute and reaching to middle of parameral lobes; the latter much longer than caulis, slender and acute as seen from above, and rather wide at middle in lateral view; sagittae fusiform, widest about two-thirds of length from base, and thence narrowed one-half to blunt apex, and in lateral view thickest at middle. Length: about 3.5-4 mm.; anterior wing, 2.7-2.9 mm.
Perdita rhois reducta Cockerell
Extracted from: Timberlake P.H., (1962). 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 V. University of California Publications in Entomology Editors, Volume 28, No. 1, pp. 1-124.
Female,—Like typical rhois, but with two dark marks or stripes more or less developed on disk of clypeus; lateral face marks small or absent; tubercles, trochanters, and tergite 1, dark; and yellow bands on tergites 2 to 5 enclosed, or those on tergites 3 or 4 to 5 sometimes absent, or narrowed enough to be concealed when segments retracted.
Male,—Apparently not distinguishable from typical rhois.
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