Volume 26, Plate XX / Entomology (Insects)

Centris Nobilis, C. Grossa & Xylocopa Violacea

1. Centris Nobilis. Centris Nobilis is a new and splendid species from the Rev. Hope’s collection, named for its large size and vivid colours. Of intense black clothed with short velvet-like plush, it has the three terminal abdominal segments brick-red, the wings black with a brilliant purple gloss, a length of about thirteen lines and wing expanse of nearly two inches, with extremely hirsute hind legs; its locality is doubtful but probably South America.
2. Centris Grossa. Centris Grossa has a bluish-black head mixed with green, black antennae, and a thorax of dark golden green inclining to blue and very glossy, despite a few scattered black hairs. The abdomen is nearly of the same brilliant hue, the underside with a greater mixture of blue, the legs black and hairy, and the wings brown; it is a native of Jamaica, nearly allied to Centris versicolor of Fabricius, which also inhabits the West Indian Islands.
3. Xylocopa Violacea. Xylocopa Violacea belongs to a conspicuous group somewhat resembling humble-bees but darker, flatter, and never banded, the wings usually very dark with brilliant violet and copper reflections. Nearly all are extra-European, but this entirely black, violet-winged species occurs across Europe; the mother-bee appears early, bores a tunnel of twelve to fifteen inches in wood with her maxillae, and divides it into about twelve cells using glued sawdust partitions, storing each with pollen and honey for the brood.