Title: The Australian zoologist
Identifier: australianzoolog12195roya (find matches)
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales; Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. Proceedings
Subjects: Zoology; Zoology; Zoology
Publisher: (Sydney, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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RAYMEXT 179
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Fig. 2: Plan of the nomiine colony at Clyde showing concentration of the shafts. The venation of the wings is of generic, but slight specific value, with three cubital cells, the first and third subequal, the second small and quad- rate; radial cell obstusely rounded on the costa, and the basal nervure arcuate in many species, but straight in Nomia sensu stricto. Hamuli 12 or so, well-developed. DISTRIBUTION The type of Nomia australica Sm. was described from Adelaide, S. Australia, but the species is widely distributed, for it has been recorded from Brisbane, Townsville, Stradbroke and Bribie Islands, and Mackay, Q.; Melbourne, V.; Swan River, W.A. Microscopical dissection of 200 males and females, collected in several states, placed the systematist in the difficult position of having either to separate large numbers of subspecies—and even races—or else conclude that Nomia australica is a highly variable species. The author finally adopted the latter concept. The student might at first feel inclined to refer all females with a black clypeus and antennae, and much white hair, to Cockerell's subspecies reginae, and the present author would have agreed had he not found both forms present in a colony at Clyde, Victoria; one, however, burrows in sand, the other in marl. Mutation is, perhaps, the explanation of this phenomenon. Typical specimens of the species have the anterior half of the clypeus, and also the scapes, yellowish-amber, with the face covered with much fox-red hair, but numerous individuals from other localities are annectant between these two forms; some having the amber clypeus but much white hair on the face; others have red hair and a black clypeus; a few have the clypeus practically nude. Cockerell had noted the black clypeus on certain bees but did not comment on it. The blue-bodied specimens from Gunbower, Victoria, with pale-coloured hair on the face would have been referred to the subspecies regis Ckll. had not the author found other males and females with a black clypeus and antennae in the same colony.

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