APID.E. 32s 



Althougb through the kindness of Dr. Mason I have been 

 able to examine the original specimens of this species taken 

 by F. Smith at Weybridge in 1844, I have refrained from 

 redescribing it, as the specimens are much faded ; I have, 

 therefore, thought it is better to copy out Smith's description 

 from the first edition of his " Catalogue of British Hymen- 

 optera " — "Apidse," 1855, p. 177. In the second edition 

 he also gives Southampton and Bristol as localities for it, 

 but on whose authority I do not know. 



M. centuncularis, Linn. — Black; smaller than any of 

 the preceding, head and thorax closely punctured, clothed 

 with golden brown hairs, more or less mixed on the vertex 

 and disc of the mesonotum with black, hairs of the face 

 more brightly golden, especially in the c?, apical joint of the 

 antennte not dilated, mandibles in the ? convex, flattened 

 only as in ligniseca ; wings slightly dusky ; abdomen closely 

 punctured, subcordate in the ? , segments deeply impressed 

 in the c?, less deeply in the ? , first and second clothed with 

 pale, the rest with erect black hairs, all the segments with 

 paler apical bauds, those of the ? , except that of the fifth, 

 widely interrupted, sixth segment in the (J with the apical 

 crest scarcely and rarely emarg^nate, its base with a narrow 

 unciform spine on each side, seventh unarmed, second and 

 third ventral segments of the c? densely fringed at the 

 apex with pale hairs, fourth produced, rather narrowly 

 truncate at the apex, with a distinct transverse ridge beyond 

 the middle, fifth with a semicircular pubescent area which 

 does not nearly reach to the base, sixth very short without 

 any apical wing, armature with the stipites shorter than the 

 sagittaj, which latter are much attenuated and touch each 

 other at the apex ; scopa of ? entirely bright orange-red, 

 the hairs projecting beyond the sides of the abdomen so as 

 to present the appearance of a fringe ; legs clothed with 

 pale hairs, anterior coxa) and tarsi simple in both sexes. 



L. 10-12 mm. 



The commonest species of the genus and generally dis- 



