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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 species was described from a single male specimen from Fedor, Lee County, Texas, collected many years ago by Birkmann. I now have before me a large series of purpurascens from Giddings, McDade, and other localities in Texas not far distant from Fedor. The female differs from other species of Cockerellia in the unusually short scopal hair of the hind tibiae. In my table of Cockerellia it runs to obscurior, but differs in having the clypeus entirely dark, the hair of mesonotum very short and mosslike, and bands of abdomen narrow and paler yellow.
Female.—Dark brassy green, the mesonotum more bronzy, the face more or less bluish green at level of antennae and also the cheeks. Clypeus black, with a bronzy or purplish luster, and occasionally with a medium yellow streak. Lateral face marks transverse and yellow. Hind margin of disk of pronotum and spot on tubercles yellow. Abdomen brownish black, with a yellow band on tergites 2 to 4, or rarely 2 to 5; band on tergite 2 narrow, basal, and sometimes narrowly interrupted, and those on other segments abbreviated and emarginate medially behind, Pygidial plate testaceous brown. Legs blackish. Antennae brown, darker above, and the scape pale yellow beneath. Mandibles rufotestaceous, becoming redder at apex. Tegulae testaceous brown, darker at base. Wings moderately whitened, the nervures and margins of stigma uniformly testaceous.
Head about as broad as long, the inner orbits slightly diverging above. Clypeus convex, moderately prominent, with the lateral extensions broadly reflexed on each side of labrum. Proboscis long, the galeae a little longer than the labial palpi. Pygidial plate large, with the apex rounded. Frons tessellate, moderately dull, and with minute punctures. Mesonotum shining, finely punctured, the punctures two or three puncture widths apart. Pubescence ochreous, more whitish on underparts, having the normal density for Cockerellia on head and underparts, and very short, close-set, erect, and mosslike on mesonotum. Scopa of hind legs fuscous, coarser than usual for Cockerellia and neither crinkly nor plumose, the hairs on anterior side of tibia curving backward and upward. Length, 5.5-7 mm.; anterior wing, 4.2-4.5 mm.
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