230 I October, 



Suoli an opportunity occurred to me at the end of last June, 

 when I found large colonies of longulus in the Isle of Wight, at 

 Totland Bay and Freshwater, the latter being one of Smith's localities ; 

 they burrow in hard pathways (as does also malachurus), and one 

 lnrge colony was in a hard bare patch of ground at the base of the 

 green slope of the downs leading from Freshwater over the cliffs to 

 Alum Bay. 



The first colony I met with was at Totland Bay just in front of 

 the coastguard station, but I could find no males ; later on, however, 

 I caught males of malachurus abundantly along a hedgerow behind 

 the fort, about 300 yards away from the colony. This puzzled me, 

 especially as I caught a large normal malachurus ? on a yellow com- 

 posite close to the hedge. I watched the colony carefully for days 

 but could not see a sign of a male near it (afterwards T found 

 longulus $ freely at the yellow flowers near the hedge). At Fresh- 

 water I had a very similar experience — there were n > males to be 

 seen flying over the colony (except those of H. morio, which raised 

 my hopes for a moment), and yet about fifty yards off I took 

 H. malachurus £ sparingly about flowers. These experiences were 

 very disappointing ; however, eventually I found a new colony alto- 

 gether between Totland Bay and Freshwater, and there I succeeded 

 in taking males and females freely flying over the same area of 

 ground. All the males were what we know as malachurus, all the 

 females were of the small form which Smith called longulus. The £ 

 is variable in size, but all the specimens are larger than I should have 

 expected as males of longulus. The males of Sphecodes subquadratus, 

 Smith, were also common in the colony, as well as Andrena fulvicrus 

 and humilis, Halictus morio and H. villosulus, so that the pathway 

 exhibited a very lively scene ; at the same time there was nothing to 

 create any doubt that these males were the partners of the females 

 of longulus, and I feel no longer any hesitation in considering it as 

 a small form of malachurus. 



What the <$ which Smith describes under longulus in the 2nd ed. 

 of his Catalogue of British II ymenoptera may be I do not know, but 

 the description of its " metathorax " (propodeum) does not appear to 

 me to represent that of any species of the cglindricus group. 



St. Ann's, Woking : 



September 9th, 1908. 



