1000.] 205 



which at once reminded me of my capture, and on consulting Schmiede- 

 knecht's description (Apid. Eur., vol. i, p. 241) it was quite clear that 

 my (J belonged to that species. He also gives Andrena Cetii as its 

 host, which further dispelled any doubt I had. Mr. Morice visited 

 the same locality on the 13th, and captured another ^ ; on the fol- 

 lowing day he secured 1 ^ and 4 ? in quite a different locality, viz., 

 on the high road to Chobham, these occurred also with A. Cetii but 

 on Scabiosa succisa. 



While Mr. Morice and I were examining these, he suggested the 

 possibility of their being the same as F. Smith's atrata, and on refer- 

 ence to his descriptions I have no doubt whatever that they are. Smith 

 described the ^ in his Catalogue of the Bees of Great Britain, 1855, 

 p. 135, and the $ in Entomologists' Annual, 1858, p. 44 ; his name 

 being the older must stand, but he himself suiik this species aa a 

 variety of germanica {= ferruginatcC) in his Cat. Brit. Hym. Acul. 

 (Ent. Soc. Lend.), 1871, p. 84, and in the 2nd Ed. of his Catalogue of 

 British Bees, and so it got lost sight of. 



It is not impossible that atrata will have to sink in favour of 

 argentata, H.-Sch. (Germ. Zeitsch. fur Ent., I, 1839, p. 276), indicated 

 by Dalla Torre as a synonym o? ferruginata ; it is clearly distinct 

 from the latter by the patches of silvery hairs on the pleuras and pro- 

 podeum, but the margins of the abdominal segments are described as 

 brown, which is not the case in our specimens of atrata. 



The characteristic features of the species are the following : — 



<?. Antennae unusually short, black, with only the apical five joints paler be- 

 neath, 3rd joint much shorter on its lower margin than the 4th, basal joints of the 

 Jlagellum not swollen as in ferruginata, the following joints with a somewhat 

 rounded tubercle near the apex of each beneath, not with a sharp acute one as in that 

 species ; labrum black, with a sliarp central tooth and two rather indefinite tubercles 

 nearer the base. The head and thorax are coal-black, very coarsely punctured, the 

 mandibles and cheeks between the eyes and maud ibles testaceous, tegulee and tubercles 

 piceous, scutellum bituberculate, very largely punctured, the tubercles more or less 

 ferruginous. Wings smoky, with a clearer region beyond the submarginal cells, 

 nervures dark, propodeum with a very distinct patch of silvery hairs on each side. 

 Abdomen piceous-brown,2nd and 3rd segments rather lighter in colour, and clothed 

 at the sides with silvery hairs, apical segment very slightly emarginate at the apex. 

 Anterior legs ferrugineous, intermediate and posterior pairs dark piceous, nearly 

 black, knees and tibiae in front paler, calcaria pale, posterior tibiae with four pale 

 spines at the apex. 



9 rather paler than the <? ; the mandibles, cheeks, a spot on the side of the 

 vertex above each eye, a spot on each side of the pronotum, the tubercles, tegulae, a 

 spot on the racsopleurae, the tubercles of the scutellum, and sometimes a spot on the 

 postscutellum, the abdomen, and the legs, more or less ferrugineous, the former 



