19O0.] 51 



THREE LITTLE-KNOWN BRITISH HYMENOPTEEA 



(POMFILUS APPROXIMATUS, Sm., OSMIA PARIETINA, Cuet., 



AND O. INERMIS, Zett.). 



BY EDWABD SAUNDERS, F. L. S, 



PoMPiLUS APPROXIMATUS, Smith, The Entom., x, p. 64, ? ; lifidus, Mor., 



Hor. Soc. Ent. Eoss., xxv, p. 190, ^•, melanarius, Bold. (iiecN. 



de L.), Ent. Mo. Mag., iv, p. 22G. 



I have had 3 (5" s and a ? of a Pompilus from Scotland, without 

 further locality, placed with niger in my collection for some years, which 

 belong to the above species. I examined Smith's types years ago, and 

 thought they were only a variety of niger, the male was unknown, 

 and the characters of the neuration, &c., seemed to me insufficient to 

 retain it as a species. On working lately at some continental Pompili, 

 of the niger group I turned up the description of Morawitz's hifidus, 

 and found that my Scotch males had bifid claws, and were no doubt 

 referable to it. Approximatus, Smith, is no doubt its ? , and being 

 the older name must stand for the species ; the characters to dis- 

 tinguish approximntus from niger are as follows : — 



(J . Head, prothorax, and anterior coxae more liairy, wings with the 3rd sub- 

 marginal cell subquadrate ; propodeum pilose, especially at the sides, and clothed 

 with a more conspicuous, fine, adpressed, silvery pubescence ; inner calcar of posterior 

 tibiae much shorter, not nearly so long as the metatarsus ; 4th tarsal joint only half 

 as long as the 5th claws bifid ; apical ventral segment compressed and shaped much 

 as in niger, but not densely clothed with short bristly hairs, as in that species. 



$ differs from niger in the more hairy head, pronotum, and coxae, the subquad- 

 rate 3rd submarginal cell, the clouding of the wings, which in this species extends 

 beyond the definite dark apical band over about a third of the wings, but so 

 delicately as hardly to obscure its clearness (in niger the wings are generally more 

 or less dusky throughout), the pilose propodeum, especially at the sides, the short 

 4th joint of the posterior tarsi, which is as broad at its apex as it is long, the more 

 developed although inconspicuous spines in the anterior metatarsal comb, and the 

 slightly narrower abdomen in proportion to its length. Long., 7 — 9 mm. 



Two ? 8, Dumfriesshire (Sharp), ? , E. Cumberland, July (Bold), 

 3 (^s and ? , Scotland, in my own collection, and several females from 

 N. Wales (Nevinson). 



OsMiA PAKTETiNA, Curt., = augustula, Zett. 

 For many years, i. e., since E. Smith's work on the British Bees 

 (" Catalogue Brit. Hym. Brit. Mus., i, 1855 "), we have known an Osmia 

 under this name ; it has always been a great rarity, and there was no 

 other closely allied species to confuse it with ; it was also a well 

 marked and conspicuous little insect. I never suspected anything 



