160 THE BEES OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. By T. D. A. CocKERELL, University of Colorado, U.S.A. (Communicated hij W. W. Frotjyatt, F.L.tS.) Up to the end of 1910, only one species of bee had been recorded from the Solomon Islands, so I was naturally pleased to see the interesting series collected by Mr. Froggatt, in 1909. The recorded species {Nomacia psilocera) was not in the collection, which consisted entirely of undescribed forms. As is well known, Australia possesses a rich bee-fauna, in-cluding many peculiar genera, which belong to the more primitive section of the Apoidea. It has, in addition, especi-ally in the North-east, a series of long-tongued bees of Indo-Malay type, evidently representing a comparatively recent invasion. New Guinea, so far as is known, possesses an Indo-Malay bee-fauna, and this same fauna, vai'iously differentiated as to species, spreads into the islands to the East. The Solomon Islands evidently possess a strong Indo-Malay element, but Mr. Froggatt's Collection brings out the interesting fact that there is also a genuinely Australian element, the most striking representative of which is Meroglossa, now for the first time found out of Australia.* It is certain that this Australian fauna must have reached the Solomon Islands by way of New Guinea, and it may be that further collecting in that island will reveal a number of Australian types ; but it is perhaps equally likely that these, or many of them, have succumbed before the Indo-Malay * Some of the green species of Prosopis from New Guinea, 4c., may prove to belong to Meroglossa. This is especially likely in the case of P. imperialia Smith.
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