178 APID.E. 



8. Megachile willughbiella. 



M. fulvescenti pubescens; abdomine brevi, ano nigro ; maris an tennis 

 articulo ultimo compresso, dilatato ; tarsis anterioribus dilatato- 

 ciliatis. 



Megachile willughbiella, Latr. Hist. Nat. Ins. xiv. 57. 



Curtis, Brit. Ent. v. 218, tab. 218. 



8t.-Farg. Hym.u. 833 ? 



Smith, Zool. ii. 691 ; Bees Great Brit. 181. 



Nyland. Notis. ur Soltek, pro Faun, et Flo. Fe?in. i. 256 tf only. 



Scheneh, Nass. Bien. 329. 



T/ioms. Hym. Scand. ii. 222. 

 Apis willughbiella, Kirby, Mon. Apwn Anyl. ii. 283 § <f. 

 Anthophora fulviventris, Zett. Ins. Lapp. 465. 



Female. Length 6-7 lines. — Black ; head as wide as the thorax, 

 the face clothed -with dark fulvous pubescence, the vertex ■with 

 black, and the cheeks with pale ochraceous : the mandibles stout, 

 prominent, and quadridentate, the two apical teeth acute, the inner 

 pair obtuse. Thorax above clothed with a rufo-fulvous pubes- 

 cence ; at the sides and beneath it is paler ; the wings subhyaline, 

 the apical margins faintly clouded, the nervures and tegulae black ; 

 the legs have a short fulvous pubescence, that on the tarsi beneath 

 ferruginous ; the calcaria and claws ferruginous, the latter black at 

 their tips. Abdomen subcordate ; the three basal segments have a 

 pale fulvous pubescence, that on the apical segments is much shorter 

 and black ; the fourth and fifth segments have a narrow fringe of 

 white pubescence : the pollen-brush on the abdomen beneath is black 

 at the sides and at the apex and fulvous in the middle. B.M. 



Male. Length 5-6 lines. — The face has a pale fulvous pubescence, 

 that on the clypeus very bright and glittering ; the antennae half 

 the length of the thorax, the apical joint compressed, wider than 

 the other joints. Thorax, the pubescence fulvous above, griseous 

 beneath ; the anterior legs have a stout spine on the coxae, the 

 femora dilated and of a pale testaceous yellow beneath, having two 

 longitudinal ferruginous stripes ; the tibiae beneath and the tarsi 

 pale testaceous ; the tibiae have a bent spine at their apex in front : 

 the basal joint of the tarsi as broad as the tibiae, the three follow- 

 ing joints transverse, gradually narrowing to the apical joint, the 

 tarsi densely fringed with a pale glittering curled pubescence, which 

 has a ferruginous stain beneath ; the claws pale ferruginous, their 

 tips black; the intermediate and posterior legs have a loose cine- 

 reous pubescence, the posterior tibiae slightly bent, the claws ferru- 

 ginous, the tips black. Abdomen subquadrate, the pubescence 

 loosely scattered and pale fulvous; the apex emarginate, the seventh 

 segment armed with three short angular teeth. B.M. 



This is the most abundant species of the genus found in this 

 country : in districts where willow-trees abound the insect occa- 

 sionally occurs in immeuse numbers ; hence its popular name, the 

 wiilow-bee. It is found during June, July, and August. Dours 



