APIS. (**. c. 2. 1} 275 



kis figure ; whereas^ in ^. rufa they are strikingly 

 long. Forster, in his catalogue of English Insects^ 

 has made two species out of the male ; our a he 

 calls A. vernalis, under which name he sent it to 

 Linneus, and it is still in the cabinet. That illus- 

 trious naturalist very properly considered it as 

 merely a variety of his A. rufa, as appears from a 

 M.S. observation in his interleaved copy of the 

 Systema Naturae, which Dr. Smith very kindly 

 allowed me to consult. Indeed it differs from B, 

 which I take to be the common A. rufa, in no- 

 thing but size, being more than twice as big. Vil- 

 lars seems also to have fallen into the same error, as 

 his A. frontalis exactly resembles our larger insect; 

 his A. rufa is probably intended for our /3 : he has 

 placed the former amongst his Bomhinatrices ; but 

 where hirsuties is taken for the only diagnostic of 

 that family, this is no proof of its being another 

 insect, since A. rufa is as hairy as many genuine 

 Bomhinatrices. That which Scopoli (c), and after 

 him Schrank (d), have given for A. rufa, appears 

 to be a different insect ; for the terms by which 

 they define theirs, viz. ^' nigra ; thorace abdomi- 

 nisque apice rufo," will scarcely agree with the 

 true one ; I have therefore made no reference to 

 them. I think there is little doubt that Reaumur 

 intended this insect by his " Mouche maqonne 

 dont la maqonnerie n'est que de pure terre (e) ;" 



(c) Ent. Carniol, n. 8l6. (d) Enum. Ins. Austr. n, 803. 



(e) Tom, 6. Mem. 3. p. 02. 

 YOL. II, T <bi 



