armatures in the Hymcnoiitcrous genus CoUetes. 51 



externally both are pilose, strongly punctured insects, with 

 short cheeks, rather short antennse, and dilated tarsi. But 

 abeillei is much the larger species. 



In the armature of aheiJlci the " apical process " of the 

 stipes is short and inconspicuous (except for its dense but 

 rather short pilosity) ; the " middle part," i. e. that above 

 the " notch," is rather elongate, and has a pointed look, 

 the outer margin (or rather " horizon ") curving inwards 

 towards the apex as though to meet the straight inner 

 margin at an angle of about 30". The sagittse are only 

 moderately dilated near the base, but the fourreau is 

 particularly large and solid-looking ; it is very wide at the 

 apex, not only extending close up to the stipes, but curling 

 round and returning thence towards the middle of the 

 armature — doubled back over itself, as it were. Besides 

 this doubling of the membrane, which alone would make it 

 somewhat opaque, it has an actual dark stain over a con- 

 siderable part of its substance, and appears even to some 

 extent chitinous. The whole coloiu' of this armature is 

 unusually dark, and the seventh ventral plate, except its 

 extreme apical border, is dark also, its lateral thickenings 

 or " costsB " almost black. The form of this segment is 

 rather simple ; its lobes are wide and sub-triangular, with 

 the corners rounded off, their surface slightly concave 

 (ventral view), but not strongly curled up at the sides as in 

 ligatus, etc., their actual apical margins straighter perhaps 

 than in any species of the group, though the apical outline 

 of their infuscated discs is evidently sinuated. 



12. Fodictcs, Kirby. PI. VII, 12, 12a. PI. IX, 61. 



This is a common British species, and I have taken it 

 also in Switzerland. It often occurs on tSenecio,a,nd I have 

 found it accompanied by E'peolus iwoduchts. 



The armature is very distinct by the unusually elongate 

 central portion of the stipites, their very inconspicuous and 

 only slightly pilose apices, and the extremely dark " wings " 

 of the sagitta3, which, however, are hyaline at the apices. 



The outline and colouring of the seventh segment also 

 distinguish the species immediately from any other. It is 

 generally very dark as a whole — almost black in places, 

 but with sharply-defined hyaline spaces at the apex and 

 near the base. Its apical margins are gently sinuated in 

 the middle, and gently rounded on each side of the sinua- 

 tion. The segment is distinctly more produced in the 



