16. BOMBUS. 201 



Female. Length 7-8 lines. — The pubescence on the head black, 

 intermixed with brown on the face and vertex ; on the thorax above 

 it is bright fulvous, on the sides and beneath it is very pale, in- 

 clining to white ; on the tibiae it is black, the corbicula on the 

 posterior pair is fringed with long paler hairs. The basal segment 

 of the abdomen with pale fulvous pubescence, the three following 

 segments with black and the apical segments with fulvous pu- 

 bescence ; beneath, the segments thinly fringed with pale hairs. 



Worker. Length 5-6^ lines. — Sometimes coloured like the female, 

 but usually the abdomen mixed entirely with pale pubescence. 



Male. Length 5-6| lines. — Occasionally the pubescence as in the 

 female, but very variable, frequently corresponding with the male 

 of B. muscorum. 



In nests of Bomhus muscorum I have found females of this species 

 on one or two occasions ; the species is much less common than B. 

 muscorum. I included B. agrorum among the varieties of B. muscorum 

 in the first edition of this work ; but finding the species plentifully 

 last summer, I was induced to examine the generative organs of the 

 males, and to compare them with those of B. muscorum, and feel 

 satisfied that it is really a distinct species. 



3. Bombus venustus. 



B. hirsuto flavescens, thorace ferrugineo-fulvo. 



Apis muscorum, Kirby, Mon. Apum Anyl. ii. 317 c? $ $ . 

 Bombus muscorum, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 349. 



Illiy. May. v. 163. 



Westw. Nat. Libr. vi. 233, pi. 16. 



Schenck, Nass. Bien. (in part.) 156. 



TJioms. Hym. Scand. ii. 28. 

 Bombus senilis, Smith, Bees Great Brit. 214 ; Entomol. iii. 263. 



Female. Length 8-9 lines. — The pubescence on the head pale ful- 

 vous, that on the thorax above rich fulvous orange ; that on the 

 sides is much paler, becoming whitish beneath ; on the anterior and 

 intermediate tibiae the pubescence is black; the posterior tibiae 

 fringed with pale fulvous hairs. Abdomen clothed above with pale 

 fulvous pubescence, inclining to lemon-yellow. 



Worker. Length 4-6 lines.- — Clothed like the female. 



Male. Length 6-7 lines. — The pubescence as in the worker ; the 

 antenna? as long as the thorax, the joints subarcuate ; the apex 

 of the abdomen has usually a mixture of fuscous pubescence. 



Dr. Nylander having informed me that he had seen a specimen 

 named by Fabricius Bombus senilis, and that in his opinion it was 

 a faded example of the worker of B. muscorum, I have changed 

 the name. It is certainly the Apis ?nuscorum of Kirby, but not 

 of Linnaeus. The name senilis is not characteristic of either the 

 present species or of the Apis muscorum of Linnaeus, except of 

 examplos in a worn and faded condition. The specimen of 



