440 Rev. F. D. Morice and Mr. J. H. Durrant's 



as entirely black !, and this suits thoracica, and certainly 

 does not suit the other species. Kirby, again, expressly 

 asserts in Mon. Ap. Angl. 1. (p. 67) that " Andrena tricolor 

 is nothing more than the male of Apis thoracica, and has 

 precisely the same oral organs." 



It seems clear, then, that Fabricius's contemporaries 

 were generally agreed in their interpretation of his diag- 

 nosis; and it is not easy to understand why their view 

 has gone so completely out of fashion. It is true that 

 Fabricius treated bicolor and thoracica as different species ; 

 but this was a necessary consequence of his error which 

 Kirby pointed out — namely that he supposed his thoracica 

 to be not an " Andrena," but an " Apis." In Systema 

 Piezatorum he silently gave up that notion, by listing 

 thoracica as well as bicolor under Andrena. But we be- 

 lieve that any one comparing his descriptions of the two 

 insects will find that the one is practically identical with 

 the other : — 



3. thoracica. 

 A. atra, thorace rufo, alis apice 

 fuscis. 



Habitat in Daniae nemoribus. 



22. bicolor. 



A. thorace villoso ferru- 

 gineo, abdomine atro 

 immaculate 



Habitat in Daniae nemori- 

 bus. 



Unfortunately, owing to his mistake about the genus of 

 thoracica, Fabricius described bicolor before thoracica; so 

 that, if our view of the facts is correct, the former name 

 ought to be restored, and the latter to fall as a synonym. 



Page 423. When proposing the new name Donis- 

 thorpea, in lieu of §Lasius F., we were led to suppose that 

 Acanthomyops Mayr was generically distinct, and were un- 

 acquainted with the subgeneric names Dendrolasius Ruzsky 

 and Chthonolasius Ruzsky. These may now be regarded 

 as four subgeneric divisions of the genus Acanthomyops 

 Mayr. 



Forel [Rev. Suisse Zool. 24. 460 (IV. 1916)] rightly 

 called attention to these omissions as follows : — •" MM. 

 Morrice et Durrant (Trans. Ent. Soc, London 1914, page 

 421 [1915]) ont institue en remplacement du Genre Lasius 

 F. (1804) qu'ils disent tombe par synonymie de Lasius 

 Jurine (1801, Apide), un nouveau genre Donisthorpea. 

 Mais ces auteurs ne tiennent aucun compte des sous- 



