2. BOMBYLIUS 499 



? . Extremely like the male. Frons at the vertex one-third the width of the 

 head, dark greyish brown, widening rapidly until a little below the antennae, 

 after which the face slightly contracts to the mouth ; face at its widest part 

 half as wide as the head ; frons apparently bare about the middle and all 

 across above the antennae because there is no short scaly pubescence there, but 

 actually with some long thin yellow hairs, and with short brownish tawny 

 pubescence on the sides about the middle and across just below the ocelli, 

 while all the upper part and the part below the short brownish pubescence 

 bear long black by no means dense hairs ; ocellar space with long black 

 outstanding hairs. Eyes more rounded on their front margin (in profile). 



Thorax almost as in the male, but the broad dark stripe along the pleuras 

 paler (even pale brown) and hardly so well defined and only rarely of at all 

 a blackish hue. Sometimes (especially in large specimens) a number of incon- 

 spicuous black hairs occur on the middle near the front part of the disc, 

 showing indications of the var. australu mentioned below. 



Abdomen with the rows of long black bristles on the hindmargins of the 

 segments better defined, and altogether with more numerous long black hairs ; 

 anus with a tawny fringe on its inner margin, but externally with a ring of 

 longer black hairs. 



Wings, etc., as in the male. 



Length about 11 mm., but varying from 8 mm. to 12 mm. 



This species appears to vary but little in British specimens except iu 

 size, but as it has a very wide geographical distribution local forms appear 

 to exist ; the var. australis Lw. is abundant in Southern Europe, and has 

 a conspicuous patch of black hairs on the front part of the thorax just 

 about where the V-sliaped mark occurs in B. discolor; specimens from 

 Cahfornia have the dark longitudinal line down the belly almost absent, so 

 that a practically entire snow white broad fascia exists before the black 

 brown one, and possibly these may represent B. fratellus Wied. which in 

 that case may claim varietal though probably not specific rank. It has 

 some very close European allies, but B. fimhriatus and its nearest alhes 

 have the dark outer spot iu the first submarginal cell quite isolated, while 

 B. lasilinea from Sicily is still doubtfully distinct, and B. consaiiguineus is 

 accepted as only a variety. 



B. major is not uncommon in early spring in the southern half of 

 England; I have records from Devon (Plymouth and Tavy Valley), 

 Somerset (Bristol), Hants (New Forest), Sussex (various locahties), 

 Kent, Essex (Epping Forest); Cambs (Dullingham), Suffolk (my own 

 garden, where it can be looked for with confidence on any sunshiny day 

 during its _ season), Norfolk, Oxford, Hereford (Tarrington), Cheshire, 

 Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Shropshire. Colonel Yerbury has 

 taken it at Porthcawl in Glamorgan, and Duncan recorded it in 1838 from 

 Eaehills, Dumfriesshire, while Mr A. Adie-DalgHsh has caught it at 

 Eiddon in Argyllshire, and a specimen was taken by Mr Anderson Fergusson 

 at Ayr in 1896. I consider it distinctly commoner than B. discolor, 

 and I think it is a rather less difficult species to capture. My dates range 

 from March 27 to May 27. It is recorded from all Europe, and from 

 Japan and North America. Dr T. A. Chapman gave (Entom. Mon. Mag., 

 xiv., p. 197) long details of the larva and pupa of this species which he 

 bred from the cells of Andrena laUalis, and he called special attention to 

 the cephalic spines of the pupa which he considered were expressly 

 formed to tear down the clay-stopping in front of the pupa and to be in 

 fact actual digging organs; he added that the pupa was the only one he 

 knew that was " actually provided with mattock and shovel with which 

 " to do its own navigating." 



