124 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



NOTES ON THE CANADIAN REPRESENTATIVES OF BRITISH 



SPECIES OF BEES. 



BY F. W. L. SLADEN, APIARIST, DOMINION EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



Of the twenty-eight genera of bees given in Saunders' ^'Hymenoptera 

 Aculeata of the British Isles," no less than twenty-two occur in Canada. The 

 six absent are small genera belonging to an ill-defined unimportant complex in 

 the Andrena group, several of which may yet be found to exist in Canada when 

 this large genus, full of raw material, has been analyzed. In most of the genera 

 common to both countries, there are many Canadian species which are more or 

 less closely related to British species. The following are a few outstanding 

 examples : 



Colletes cunicularia Linn. 



Colletes incequalis Say, by far the largest species of Colletes in Eastern 

 Canada and the only one occurring in spring, is apparently the representative 

 of C. cunicularia Linn., also much the largest species and the only spring one 

 found in England. Both are among the earliest bees to appear in spring. Ottawa 

 specimens differ from British in having a much shorter coat, Avhich is generally 

 paler and greyer (less brown), and they have well-developed bands of white 

 felt* on the margin of each segment of the abdomen. These bands in British 

 specimens are scarcely discernible, being composed of fewer, looser hairs, which 

 are dingy. Ottawa specimens are smaller; several females measured averaged 

 in length 13.33 mm.; British females 14.00 mm.; Ottawa males 11.00 mm.; 

 British males 13.25 mm. 



Andrena clarkella Kirby. 



Comparison of a male and two females of Andrena bicolor Prov. taken by 

 the writer at Ottawa, and a female from Abitibi, with two males and two females 

 of A. clarkella Kirby, taken at Maidstone, Kent, England, and with Saunders' 

 description of this species shows no differences either in structure or colour. 

 Even the tint and extent of the different hair colours in both sexes are identicaL 

 The characteristic red and red-haired hind tibiae and tarsi, and black-haired 

 notum in the female, and the comparative lengths of the antennal joints 3, 4 

 and 5 in both sexes are the same. The Canadian examples however, are a little 

 smaller:- — females, average length 12.00 mm ; Maidstone females 12.75 mm.; 

 Ottawa males 8.75 mm.; Maidstone males 9.75 mm.; and the coat on the thorax 

 and abdomen is much shorter and less shaggy in the Canadian specimens. In 

 both countries these are early spring bees. The Ottawa females were taken 

 during early willow-bloom on April 25, 1915, about ten days after the snow 

 had gone, and the male on April 27. In England it is taken in early March 

 and has been recorded as early as February 19. It is also widely distributed 

 northwards and uncommon, both in Canada and England. 



Andrena wilkella Kirby. 



Andrena winkleyi Vier. is the same as A. ivilkella Kirby. I can find no 



differences in structure or size. Both are abundant in late spring at Ottawa and 



Dover respectively, and are fond of the same plants; Myosotis, etc. In both, 



the third antennal joint is shorter than the fourth, a character by which ivllkella 



*The word "felt" is used to describe very short, close hair, the individual hairs of which 

 are thicker than ordinary hairs. Felt grades into ordinary hairs. 

 June, 1919 



