THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 66.] . JUNE, MDCCCLXIX. [Price 6d. 



A Revision of the Characters and Synonymes of BritisJt Bees. 



By FREDERICK Smith, Esq. 



(Continued from vol. iv, page 258). 



Genus Halictus, Latr. 

 Div. II. — The females with abdominal fascial on the basal 

 margins of the segments ; the body entirely black. (Sp. 

 7 to 22). Sec. 1 (concluded). 



16. Halictus l^vis. 



Melitta laevis, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 65. 



Halictus laevis, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 277 ? Smith, Brit. 

 Bees, p. 40. 



I have never found this species, of which one perfect and 

 one imperfect example are preserved in the type- collection 

 in the British Museum. Mr. Kirby took the insect at Nac- 

 ton, in Suffolk, a village on the Orwell, a mile or two from 

 Langard Fort. I have a specimen of an Halictus that I 

 thought might prove to be H. laevis, from the Isle of Wight, 

 but I am satisfied it is not the same, and I consider it only a 

 large example of H. longulus. The typical specimen is 

 about four lines long ; the head, thorax and legs have a thin 

 pale ochraceous pubescence ; the head closely punctured ; 

 the flagellum of the antennae obscure fulvous beneath towards 

 the apex ; the thorax shining, strongly punctured, the punc- 

 tures not very close, and widest apart in the middle of the 

 disk ; the metathorax truncate, rugose at the base above ; 

 the tegulae black, the wings hyaline and iridescent, the ner- 

 vures rufo-leslaceous ; the legs rufo-piceous ; abdomen ob- 

 long-ovate, very glossy and quite impunctale. 



17. Halictus longulus. 

 Halictus longulus. Smith, Brit. Bees, p. 39, female. 

 Of this species I do not know the male : I took the female 



