12 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



This species most closely resembles " communis" but is very 

 distinct ; its coarse puncturing, when compared with that insect, 

 will serve to distinguish it, and it is also larger. Only once 

 met with, on a collecting excursion at Birch Wood, Kent; 

 which, about the years 1839-40, was an excellent locality for 

 many hymenopterous insects, particularly that side which faces 

 the west ; but all the old uncultivated land is planted, and many 

 species are not now to be met with. 



6. Prosopis signata. 



P. atra, fronte maculata; abdomine segmento primo margine 

 utrinque albo. 



Sphex signata, Panz. Faun. Germ. 53. 2. 



Melitta signata, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 41. 6^* $ . 



Prosopis atrata, Fair. Syst. Piez. 295. 10 ^ . 



Hylaeus signatus, Smith, Trans. Ent. Soc. iv. 30. 3 ; ZooL vi. 2206. 9. 



Female. Length 3 lines. Black; the flagellum fulvous beneath ; 

 the face has on each side an angular yellow stripe, sometimes 

 only a small spot, not reaching above the insertion of the an- 

 tennae ; a line on each side of the collar, the tubercles, a spot 

 on the tegulse in front and the extreme base of the tegulae, yel- 

 lowish-white ; the tibiae sometimes entirely black, or only one 

 or more pairs slightly pale at their extreme base ; the anterior 

 tibiae usually more or less fulvous in front. The abdomen 

 smooth, shining, and delicately punctured ; the extreme lateral 

 apical margins of the basal segment have sometimes a little 

 fringe of white puhescerice. B.M. 



Var. /3. The face sometimes entirely black. 



Male. Length 3-3^ lines. The face below the insertion of the 

 antennae white ; the flagellum, except the two basal joints, ful- 

 vous ; the thorax has a line short scattered white pubescence, 

 particularly on the sides of the metathorax and beneath ; some- 

 times a spot on each side of the collar, another on the tubercles 

 behind, and a minute one on the tegulse in front, white ; the 

 extreme base of the posterior tarsi and tibiae white ; the anterior 

 tibiae fulvous in front ; the claws ferruginous. The abdomen 

 closely and distinctly punctured, more strongly than in the 

 female, the basal segment having on its apical margin laterally 

 a short fringe of white pubescence ; the margins of the other 

 segments slightly pubescent laterally. B.M. 



This is the largest British species and easily distinguished. 

 St. Fargeau is not quoted ; he had so confused an acquaintance 



