80 ANDKEXIT)/!;. 



Sckenck, Nass. Bien. 263. 



Thorn.'-. Opusc. Ent. 310 ; Hym. Scand. 24. 

 Apis rubicundus, Christ. Hym. 190, tab. 16. tig. 10 5- 

 Melitta rubicunda, Kirhy, Mon. Apum Anyl. ii. 53 rf § • 



Female. Length 4-5 lines. — Black ; the face thinly clothed with 

 short pale fulvous pubescence ; the labrum bearded with golden- 

 yellow hairs ; the flagellum slightly nigro-piceous beneath. Thorax : 

 the disk is clothed with fulvo-ferruginous pubescence, on the sides 

 and metathorax it is paler ; the tegula? ferruginous ; the wings 

 subhyaline, faintly clouded at their apical margins, the nervures 

 testaceous ; the anterior tarsi, the intermediate pair, as well as the 

 tibiae above, and the posterior tibiae and tarsi fulvous, their pubes- 

 cence of a golden yellow ; the basal joint of the posterior tarsi has 

 frequently a fuscous stain outside. Abdomen ovate, smooth and 

 shining, having a little pale fulvous pubescence at the base ; all the 

 segments have a narrow white fascia on their apical margins, the 

 first and second usually interrupted. B.M. 



Male, — The apex of the clypeus and the labrum yellow : the antennas 

 about the length of the head and thorax, fusco-ferruginous beneath : 

 the face has a little griseous pubescence ; that on the vertex and 

 disk of the thorax is faintly yellowish ; the tibia? and tarsi yellow, 

 the former having a dark stain in front. Abdomen elongate, the 

 first four segments having a narrow white fascia on their apical 

 margius, the first three interrupted. B.H. 



This is probably the most widely distributed species of the genus ; 

 it is found in every part of the United Kingdom, and is scattered 

 throughout Europe. Specimens from North America very closely 

 resemble our insect, but are scarcely identical, having the abdo- 

 men rather more closely punctured ; Mr. Kirov considered them the 

 same. The species is described by Say as H. paraUelus. 



In 1868 I captured two females of this species attacked by Stylops. 

 The females appear very early in the spring, and are among the 

 latest of our solitary bees found in autumn ; I have taken them as 

 late as the middle of October. I took remarkable varieties of the 

 males on Lundy Island in the month of August, 1869, having the 

 flagellum of the antenna? yellow, with only two or three of the basal 

 joints black above, resembling the male of quadricinctus, but having 

 the mandibles simple, and the cheeks convex. 



2. Halictus quadricinctus. 



H. ater, cinereo subpubescens ; abdomine convexo, segmentis mar- 

 gine albis ; pedibus anoque pallido villosis. 



Halictus quadricinctus, Smith, Zool. vi. 2040 ; Bees Great Brit. 26. 

 Nyland. Notts, ur Sallsk. pro Faun, et Flo. Fenn. 198. 

 Thorns. Opusc. Ent. 310 ; Hym. Scand. ii. 137. 



