This paper presents detailed comparative descriptions of the mature larvae and eggs of Centris (Heterocentris) bicornuta Mocsáry and Epicharis (Epicharoides) albofasciata Smith as representatives of two genera that are closely related. It strongly suggests that both species, while developing, pass through five larval instars; because the first instar remains mostly pharate within the chorion, it is only as a second instar that it begins to consume provisions and increase in size. There follows an account of how each species changes in functional anatomy from one instar to the next and how each instar of one species compares with the same instar of the other.

In response to a recently published paper (Martins and Melo, 2016), which suggested that the tribe Centridini may be polyphyletic because some taxa within Centris share features with corbiculate genera, it is pointed out that all corbiculate genera uniquely share an apomorphy: they bear small paired, elevated, finely setose, sclerotized, and usually pigmented apical tubercles on the thoracic segments of mature larvae. Such thoracic tubercles are unknown in the Centridini or elsewhere among bees.