19(18] 170 



Four specimens of 0. afra wore taken in Guernsey and recorded 

 by Mr. W. A. Luff in Ent. Mo. Mag., Feb., 1007, "flying in company 

 with Megaehile argentata, Fab." In a note attached to Mr. Luff's 

 paper (/. c, page 40), Mr. Edward Saunders calls attention to the 

 great interest of the capture, and says " in this country 1 have sought 

 in vain for any of the small red-tailed Coelioxys associating with 

 Meqaclu'le aryentata. I was much pleased to find Ooelioxt/s brevis with 

 M. arqentata in Jersey, and now 0. afra turns up with it in Guernsey. 

 . . . These little species belong to a group of which we have no 

 exponents in "Britain, and which is peculiar in having the white bands 

 of the abdomen formed of scale-like hairs. . . I have always 



looked on C. afra as quite a southern form." 



As will be seen from the above remarks of Mr. Saunders the 

 present insect is very easily distinguishable from any of the hitherto 

 recorded species of British Coelioxys. This is especially the case with 

 the ? , which, besides the peculiar scale-like pilosity which it shares 

 with the £, is characterized by having the apical dorsal segment of 

 the abdomen red at the tip, and the apical ventral segment entirely 

 red, projecting very little beyond the apical dorsal, and with a small 

 but strong emargination at its apex, the corners of this emargmation 

 having the appearance of minute sharp teeth. (Tn the ? of C. brevis, 

 which, as said above, is attached to M. arqentata in Jersey, and which 

 may also quite possibly turn up some day in this country, the apical 

 segments are coloured much as in C. afra ; but the form of the apical 

 ventral segment is quite different, projecting far beyond the apical 

 dorsal segment, and sharply acuminate, without any emargination at 

 its apex). 



A most excellent description of both sexes of afra has been 

 drawn up (in Latin) by Mocsary in "Acad. Hung, scient. math, 

 phys., &c," 1870, and is quoted in full by Friese, " Bienen Europa's," 

 Part i, p. 68. Tt is too long to reproduce or translate here in extenso, 

 but the following brief diagnosis is mainly founded upon it — 



Oalcaria pale ; two spots formed of white scales at the base of the scutellum ; 

 breast and great part of the legs clothed with white scales ; apices of abdominal 

 segments, in the centre above fringed narrowly with white scales arranged in single 

 rows, at the sides and beneath with similar but longer scales in many rows forming 

 wide fascise. 



? with a sharp carina between the antenna ; a short, rather sharp, carina on 

 the 6th abdominal dorsal segment before its red obtuse apex, a white spot of scale- 

 like pubescence on each side of the same segment ; the 6th ventral segment pro- 

 duced slightly beyond the dorsal apex, red, broad, its disc impressed, and its apex 

 emarginate. 



