Species Account taken from "A Revision of the Genus Neolarra (Hymenoptera: Nomadidae)
Author(s): Charles D. Michener Source: Transactions of the American Entomological Society (1890-), Vol. 65, No. 4 (Dec., 1939),pp. 347-362"
This is a small, rather robust, species, in which the abdomen
is largely red in the female and black in the male. The pube
scence is white, faintly brownish on dorsum of head and thorax.
The female resembles alba in the deep notch of the fifth tergite,
but californica averages distinctly smaller, and is somewhat less
densely pubescent. The process of the seventh tergite of the
male is distinctly narrower in californica than in alba. Further
more, the outer hind tibial spurs of californica are usually about
one half as long as the metatarsus, while in alba they approach
two thirds the length of the metatarsus. Notwithstanding these
differences, californica may prove to be a subspecies of alba.
Female. Head: Eyes separated by less than length of an eye; distance from median ocellus to posterior edge of vertex distinctly less than half distance from median ocellus to antennal bases; first segment of flagellum broader than long and distinctly shorter than pedicel; flagellum testaceous beneath, dusky testaceous above; anterior margin of clypeus narrowly dark
testaceous; labrum dark testaceous; mandibles testaceous, apices reddish. Thorax: Width of thorax across pronotal tubercles not as great as width across mesepisterna; pronotal tubercles black; tegulae ruf o-testaceous ;axillae broadly arcuate (figure 3); process of metanotum slightly bilobed; wings with two recurrent and two transverse cubital veins, second sub marginal cell very short; bases of tibiae testaceous; fore tarsi testaceous;
metatarsi and apices of tibiae testaceous. Abdomen: Pinkish red, tergites four to six somewhat dusky; first tergite largely covered with white pubescence; pubescence distributed over tergites two to five, but denser on posterior margins of tergites than elsewhere, forming rather distinct white fasciae; fifth tergite with a deep median notch in posterior margin (figure 4). Length, 3 mm.
Male. Similar to female. Abdomen black, covered with white pubescence which is denser on posterior margins of tergites than elsewhere; process of seventh tergite rather slender (intermediate between those shown in figure 8 and 9). Length, 4 mm.
Holotype female, (Calif. Acad. Sei. Ent. No. 4831) ; allotype
male, (Calif. Acad. Sei. Ent. No. 4832) ; and five female and four
male paratypes ; from five miles west (" north" on label) of Indio, Riverside County, California (at junction of La Quinta and Palm Springs to Indio roads), April 10, 1936, (C. D.
Michener; some on flowers of Prosopis juliflora var. glandulosa,
most flying over the sand). Certain paratypes have been deposited in The American Entomological Society Collection.
Additional localities are: California: Dos Palmos, Riverside County, March 26, 1937, [Bohart collection]. Independence, Inyo County, June 14, 1937, (N. Frazier) ;Furnace Creek, Death Valley, April 8, 1939, (E. G. Linsley; flying about Prosopis juliflora var. glandulosa). There is some variation among the paratypes, one female being 4 mm. long. A male (not paratype) has the abdomen slightly testaceous.
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