312 CLAViooRNiA. [Antherop?ia(/u3. 



I. Upper surface clotlied with very fine and not very evi- 



dent pale pubescence. 

 i. Colour light yellowish-testaceous ; nnterior tibiaj not 



produced externally at apex ; length 4-4^ mm. ... A. NIGEICOBXIS, i^. 

 ii. Colour ligliter or darlser ferruginous; anterior tibiae 



produced into a moderate tooth externally at apex ; 



length 3-3| mm A. palleks, G^II. 



II. Upper surface clothed with long tomentose pubescence, 

 which is especially long and distinct on the head ; an- 

 terior tibiaj produced into a strong tooth externally at 



apex ; length 3J-4 mm A. silaceus, Herbst. 



IL. nig-ricornis, F. (silaceus, Gyll. and Steph. 111., nee Herbst.), 

 Oblong, rather depressed, of a light yellowish-testaceous colour, some- 

 times very slightly reddish, clothed with very fine yellowish pubes- 

 cence ; head thickly and finely punctured ; antennae varying according 

 to sex ; thorax much broader than long, rectangular, very finely 

 punctured, nearly as broad at base as elytra ; elytra very finely punc- 

 tured with traces of longitudinal striae. L. 4-4| mm. 



The forehead is deeply excised in the male, slightly sinuate in female ; 

 in the latter sex the antennae are comparatively slender and unicolorous 

 reddish-testaceous ; in the former they are very thick and stout, ferru- 

 ginous or dark Avith basal and apical joints lighter ; the tibiae in the 

 male are broadly black at apex, in the female at most slightly darkened ; 

 the anterior tarsi of the male have the first three joints somewhat 

 dilated. 



On flowers, and by sweeping herbage, &e. ; occasionally found in and about tho 

 nests of jBomfii; not uncommon ; London district, generally distributed; Brandon, 

 Suffolk ; Hastings ; Glanvilles Wootton ; New Forest ; Midland districts, Broms- 

 grove, Bewdley, Repton, &c. ; Chat Moss ; Scarborough ; Manchester district, 

 general in humble-bees' nests, and also in flowers of Digitalis ; Northumberland 

 (listrict, common (Mr. Bold records that he once captured a Bombus with a specimen 

 firmly fixed by the mandibles to one of its hind legs) ; Scotland, in flowers, rare, 

 Lowlands, Clyde and Forth districts ; Ireland, near Belfast. 



A. pallens, Gyll. Smaller than the preceding, and of a deeper 



red colour, usually more or less ferruginous ; the thorax has the sides 



a little rounded in front, and the head and thorax are more distinctly, 



although very closely, punctured ; the anterior tibiae are by most 



authors said not to be produced in a tooth externally, but this is 



incorrect, as they are certainly slightly produced, although not nearly 



as strongly so as in A. silaceus ; the sexual difi'erences are much as in 



the preceding species, except that the male is larger in proportion 



than the female, and the tibiae are scarcely darkened at apex. L. 3- 



3 1 mm. 



In and about the nests of Bomhi ; also by sweeping ; local and as a rule not 

 common ; Wey bridge, Caterham, Claygate, Lee, Dareuth Wood, Birdbrook, Forest 

 Hill, West Wickham ; Burnham Beeches ; Kingsgate ; Birchington ; Folkestone ; 

 Dover ; Glanvilles Wootton ; Parkhurst Forest, Isle of Wight ; New Forest ; 

 Southajc])ton ; Devonshire; Litllingtou ; Solihull, near Birniingham ; Repton, 



