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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 is one of the species of Perdita that I collected on my first visit to the Colorado Desert in April, 1925, and the only one taken at that time on Larrea. It is common on Larrea on both the Colorado and Mohave deserts although outnumbered by the similar and larger P. punctulata. The markings are rather similar to those of P. interserta Cockerell, but because of the simple tapering mandibles it goes in the zebrata section of the zonalis group. Female.—Head and thorax dark yellowish green, the propodeum bluish. Mandibles except reddish tips, labrum, and usually almost entire face below level of antennae bright yellow; clypeus with usual pair of dark dots; sutural margins of subantennal plates usually dark with green of frons intruding between the plates and lateral marks and sometimes extending narrowly even to the clypeus, although changing to black on lower end of plates; more rarely the subantennal plates are nearly all dark; lateral marks abruptly narrowed at the foveae, with a short triangular intrusion between foveae and eyes. Pronotum yellow, with a dark blotch tinged with green on lower half of flanks. Abdomen yellow, with a narrow fuscous or brownish band at junction of tergites 1-2 to 3-4; that part of the bands at apex of segments terminating in slight bulges on each side sublaterally, and the part at base of segments extending backward at outer ends nearly to middle of the lateral margins; tergite 1 also having a dark spot on each side before the summit of the basal declivity, and these spots occasionally enlarged to enclose a large median yellow mark; tergite 4 also with an abbreviated narrow dark band close to apical margin, or this band often reduced to sublateral oval marks. Legs yellow, with hind tibiae and tarsi and more or less of the femora fuscous; apex of front and middle femora always yellow and sometimes the dark color of femora is reduced to a blotch on posterior side of front pair and broad dark streaks on each side of upper margin of hind pair. Antennae yellow. The flagellum somewhat tinged with brown beneath and upper side of pedicel and flagellum blackish. Tegulae yellow at base and hyaline on outer margin. Wings strongly iridescent, whitish hyaline, the nervures pale yellowish with subcosta and margins of stigma more orange yellow.
Head rotund and no broader than long, the disk of clypeus much broader than high and broadly rounded above. Mandibles curved, tapering and acute at apex. Facial foveae well impressed, broader than interval between them and eyes, generally narrower and receding from eyes at lower end, and about two thirds as long as space between antennal sockets and anterior ocellus. Pygidial plate a little longer than wide at base, the side converging to the moderately narrow and somewhat rounded apex. Marginal cell of wings with parts beneath and beyond stigma about equal. Mesonotum highly polished, with minute sparse punctures, which become more remote on middle of scutum. Frons smoothly tessellate, moderately shining, and with minute moderately close punctures. Pubescence whitish, rather long and erect, becoming thin and shorter on the mesonotum; the prescutellar band of more plumose and depressed hair wide in the middle and moderately dense. Length, 5-5.5 mm.; anterior wing, 3-3.5 mm.
Male.—Head and thorax dark yellowish or bluish green. Anterior end of cheeks and short postorbital line, mandibles except red tips, labrum, entire face below level of antennae bright yellow; clypeus with the usual pair of dark dots; lateral marks only a little narrower above than at lower end, and ending bluntly and more or less obliquely at level of foveae. Pronotum yellow, with a broad green band from flank to flank. Abdomen yellow, with tergite 1 fuscous or black, except two small yellow spots or marks close together on middle of disk; base of tergites 2 to 5, and 6 more faintly, with a narrow blackish band, dilated at outer ends; apex of tergites 2 to 5 (or 6) with a transversely oval dark spot on each side and generally a faint, very narrow brownish band between the spot on tergites 2 and 3; or sometimes the dark markings on tergites 2 to 6 suffusedly enlarged with the yellow bands almost or quite enclosed. Legs yellow, the coxae at base, a blotch or streak on outer side of hind tibiae, large blotch covering hind femora except base, extreme apex, underside and part of anterior side, and often a small blotch on posterior side of front and middle femora, fuscous. Antennae yellow, pedicel and flagellum narrowly fuscous above, the terminal joint almost entirely pale. Tegulae and wings as in female, except the subcosta and margins of stigma pale brown, the other nervures except sometimes those enclosing marginal cell in part, appearing at least by contrast more pallid than in female.
Head barely broader than long. Mandibles rather small and acute and not reaching the far margin of proboscidial fossa. Facial foveae faint, nearly punctiform. Sculpture and pubescence about as in female, but punctures of frons sparse and obscure. Subgenital plate about three to four times longer than wide, and becoming considerably wider at apex, which is somewhat con-cavely truncate. Caulis of aedeagus about as broad as long, with the parameral lobes about equaling length of caulis, obliquely truncate at apex and with a rather long fringe of hair; fused body of sagittae about three times longer than wide and narrowing slightly to the blunt apex. Length, 3.8-4:5 mm.; anterior wing, 2.8-3.2 mm.
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