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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.
This yellow species occurs on Mentzelia, mostly at low altitudes east of the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Nebraska, although Cockerell has recorded it from an elevation of over 10,000 feet at Tennessee Pass, Colorado. The female is distinguished from other small yellow Perdita by having the head slightly longer than wide, with a very large clypeus and subantennal plates, and by the insertion of antennae at the middle of face. The male, especially in macrocephalous examples, is distinguished by its quadrate head with very broad dentate cheeks, and by the deeply impressed flanks of the pronotum. Both sexes usually have a black patch on each side of the posterior part of the mesopectus and their ocelli are more or less encircled with black.
Female.—Pale yellow, almost verging on creamy white, the foveae of face and of tergite 2 black. Ocelli more or less encircled with black, the dark area sometimes forming a narrow irregular band from eye to eye at their summits; sometimes a small black spot present above each antennal socket. A circular dark patch on each side of mesopectus sometimes pale brown or evanescent. Mandibles yellow, becoming red at apex. Proboscis centrally fuscous, including first joint of labial palpi, but stipites yellow and galeae brown. Antennae and legs yellow; flagellum more or less brown above, but sometimes only basal joints darkened with short narrow crossbands. Tegulae yellow at base and broadly subhyaline on outer margin. Wings milky hyaline, nervures pallid, subcosta and margin of stigma yellow
Head slightly longer than wide, with antennae inserted halfway between level of anterior ocellus and anterior margin of clypeus. Proboscis rather elongate, yet contained in proboscidial fossa when folded in repose. Mandibles stout, with small inner tooth, and reaching to far margin of fossa. Clypeus large, convex, and prominent; disk about one and one-fourth times as broad as high. Subantennal plates more than twice as long as wide and pointed at anterior end. Facial foveae well impressed, narrow, barely more than their own width from margin of eyes, and extending from level of middle of antennal sockets about three-fourths of distance to level of anterior ocellus. Pterostigma large and moderately broad; parts of marginal cell beneath and beyond it about equal. Frons, vertex, and mesonotum very minutely tessellate, moderately shin¬ing, and with only a few very fine and scattered punctures. Pubescence very fine, short, and sparse on face and mesonotum; rather long and moderately dense on checks and sternum; longer and denser on front coxae. Pygidial plate triangular, about as long as wide at base, and with apex narrowly truncate. Length: about 4.5-6.5 mm.; anterior wing, 4r-4.6 mm.
Male.—Similar to female but deeper yellow in color; antennae sometimes entirely clear yellow, and dark markings of face and sternum often reduced or absent, at least in small-headed examples.
Head quadrate, inner orbits of eyes parallel, and proportions of parts of face about as in female. Cheeks broader than eyes even in small-headed examples, and more or less strongly dentate anteriorly in macrocephalous examples. Mandibles tapering, acute at apex, and each reaching, in macrocephalous examples, well beyond far margin of proboscidial fossa. Flank of pronotum strongly impressed in proportion to degree of enlargement of head. Sculpture and pubescence as in female. Tergite 7 narrowed to moderately wide and rounded apex. Subgenital plate triangular or arrowhead shaped, rather convex beneath and carinately ridged at apex; very fine short hairs on a little less than apical half of disk, not or barely fringing its margins except at extreme apex. Caulis of genitalia broader than long, with short blunt dorsal lobes and long slender parameral lobes; sagittal rods slender, divergent at apex for emission of bulky eversible penial sac. Length: about 4r-5.5 mm.; anterior wing, 3-4 mm. The type locality of wootonae is five or six miles beyond Tularosa, Otero Co., New Mexico, on the road to the mountains. It has been recorded also from Denver, Pueblo, La Junta, Wray, and Tennessee Pass in Colorado, and from Crawford and Glen in Nebraska.
Perdita viridinotata n. sp.
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.
This species is similar to wootonae in its pale-yellow color, but the dark patch on each side of the mesopectus is dark green. The head of the female differs from that of wootonae in being no longer than wide, with the clypeus and subantennal plates normal in size and the facial foveae much shorter.
Female.—Pale yellow, except for a large green patch (sometimes lacking) on each side of posterior half of mesosternum, and blackish foveae of face and tergite 2. Antennae and legs yellow; joints of flagellum with small pale brown mark on outer side. Tegulae yellow at base and broadly subhyaline on outer margin. Wings whitish hyaline, nervures pallid, subcosta and stigna yellow.
Head as broad as long. Clypeus broadly reflexed anteriorly on each side; dorsal truncation of disk almost straight and bisecting inner margin of subantennal plates nearly at their middle. Facial foveae well impressed, slightly arcuate, a little more than their own width from margin of eyes, and a little less than half as long as space included between antenna! sockets and anterior ocellus. Mandibles stout, tapering, and with small inner tooth. Proboscis shorter than in wootonae, apex of galeae in repose falling short of base of stipites. Pterostigma large, not quite equaling width of first submarginal cell; parts of marginal cell beneath and beyond it subequal. Pygidial plate broad at base and bluntly rounded at apex. Head and thorax minutely tessellate and slightly dullish; puncturation excessively fine and very sparse. Pubescence white and generally sparse, with face and mesonotum almost nude, hair of front coxae long and dense, hair on dorsal margin of hind tibiae slightly plumose and not much longer than greatest width of tibiae. Length: about 5 mm.; anterior wing, 3.8-4 mm.
Male.—Pale yellow, except for greenish marks, including small mark (sometimes absent) on each side of vertex a little behind level of ocelli and halfway between each lateral ocellus and nearest eye, large round patch on each side of posterior part of mesosternum, and a thick-armed V-shaped mark on propodeum. Oval patch at base of tergite 1 and apical band on tergites 1 and 2, brownish fuscous; the bands not reaching lateral margins, that on tergite 2 broadly subinterrupted in middle and that on tergite 1 joined to basal mark by a dark line in median crease. Tegulae and wings as in female but stigma more pallid centrally.
Head as broad as long; cheeks about as broad as eyes, widest (but just slightly) somewhat in front of summit of eyes and dentate anteriorly in one of two examples. Facial foveae small and punctif orm. Occiput broadly concave, width of concavity equaling distance between summit of eyes. Flanks of pronotum well impressed, but disk not abbreviated and with posterior corners rounded and moderately prominent. Sculpture and pubescence about as in female, but mesonotum somewhat more shining than frons. Tergite 7 and subgenital plate shaped much as in wootonae, but plate more narrowly triangular and not carinately ridged on apical part of disk. Genitalia similar to those of wootonae but dorsal lobes of caulis smaller, volsellae much more exposed, and parameral lobes shorter and a little thickened on apical half. Length: about 4 mm.; anterior wing, 3 mm.
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