THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 123 



THE AMERICAN BEES OF THE GENUS ANDRENA DE- 

 SCRIBED BY F. SMITH. 



BY REV. F. D. MORICE AND T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



[In 1891 Mr. Chas. Robertson wrote (Tr. Am. Ent. Soc, XVIII., 49): 

 " After careful study, I have been unable to determine more than two 

 of Smith's species" of Andrena; and went on to explain that Smith's 

 descriptions omitted certain characters which were necessary for the 

 exact determination of the species. It is probable that Mr. Robertson 

 did not have before him many of Smith's species, and hence, naturally, 

 could not recognize them in his material ; but it is nevertheless true that 

 the determination of Smithian Andreuce. from the description alone is 

 often a matter of great uncertainty. 



Under these circumstances, I ventured to ask the Rev. F. D. Morice, 

 who has done such excellent work on European Andrenoe, if he would ex- 

 amine Smith's types in the British Museum, and report on certain characters 

 which I enumerated. This he has kindly done. Writing under date, January 

 29, he says : "I have been in London for a few days and examined Smith's 

 Andrena types at the British Museum. Here are the notes I made upon 

 them. I could not always get a really satisfactory view of the labrum, but 

 have done my best. Some specimens are very dirty, and the light in the 

 insect room is not good for minute investigations. In each case the 

 specimen described is that which bears a label stating it to be the ' type ' 

 of the species. With fastuosa ( 9 ) is placed a $ , apparently belonging 

 to it, but I do not know whether the latter has ever been described. 

 I could only find a description of the 9 . Pray use my notes just as you 

 please." In the following article, the notes by Mr. Morice are all 

 included within inverted commas, and will thus be easily distinguished 

 from my own comments. — T. D. A. C.] 



Andrena aliena, Smith, 1853. 

 9 . " Area transversely striated; abdomen greasy, but seems to be smooth 

 between the punctures; tubercle emarginate." Here and in all the 

 notes given below, "area" means the basal area of the metathorax, 

 propodeum, or median segment. "Tubercle" means the basal 

 tubercle or process of the labrum. 

 This species, from Florida, would seem to fall close to A. Forbesii, 

 Rob., but it is evidently not the same. 



Andrena victima, Smith, 1853. 

 4^ . 'Tubercle truncate; area rugose at its base; abdomen punctured like 

 trimmerana, not the least like convexiuscu/a." 



