182 THE HUMBLE-BEE vill 
11. BOMBUS LATREILLELLUS, Kirby.’ 
Short-haired Humble-bee. 
Synonym :—subterraneus (Linn.), according to many continental 
authors. 
QUEEN.—Large; length 20-22 mm., expanse 38-41 
mm, 
Head black. Thorax black with a yellow band in front 
and a very narrow one behind, the yellow, as in ruderatus, 
rather deep (except in young specimens), and soon 
becoming dull and brownish with exposure; often the 
band on the front of the thorax is in the middle 
encroached upon from behind, or divided, by a smudge 
of black. Abdomen black, with the 4th and 5th segments 
white, and with a fringe of yellowish or dingy white on 
the edge of the 3rd segment, a narrower and fainter one on 
the edge of the 2nd segment ; this being often brownish and 
scarcely discernible, and often a few yellowish hairs on 
the edge of the Ist segment: in light specimens, which 
are not common, the Ist segment is yellow. 
Coat short—-very short on the basal segments of the 
abdomen. 
The head is elongate, but somewhat less so than in 
ruderatus, the length of the cheeks being distinctly less than 
half that of the eyes. 
The general appearance is very like that of a queen of 
ruderatus, but it is always possible to distinguish the one 
1 According to the generally accepted rules of priority, sad¢erraneus, Linn., 
an older name than /atrez//ellus, Kirby, should be used for this species, and 
it has been extensively adopted on the Continent, but I do not think it advis- 
able to abandon the name of /atrvez/le/lus, by which the particular colour-variety 
of this species that occurs in Britain and the greater part of Western Europe 
is universally known. The correct appellation of our bee should thus be 
“* subterraneus, var. latretllellus,” but the introduction of the name sadéer- 
vaneus into the British list at the present time would cause much confusion, 
because until now it has been applied by British authors to 4. raderatus, 
British specimens of which often agree with Linnzeus’s later description of 
‘subterraneus, ** hirsuta, atra, ano fusco.” Some systematists hold the opinion, 
which is not likely to meet with universal approbation, that early names apply- 
ing equally to more than one species should be dropped. 
