BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1? 



Melitta sphecoides, Kir by, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 46. 9 $ . 



Melitta monilicornis, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 47. 10. t. 15. f. 6 $ . 



Melitta picea, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 48. 81 $ , var. 



Sphecodes piceus, Wesm. Obs. 



Sphecodes gibbus, Nyland. Ap. Boreal. 193. 2. 



Sphecodes sphecoides, Smith, Zool. iii. 1013. f . 3 $ & 4 <j? . 



Female. Length 4-4 lines. Head and thorax black, the head 

 a little wider than the thorax, strongly and closely punctured, 

 the clypeus very coarsely so ; the thorax smooth, shining, and 

 having scattered deep punctures ; the base of the metathorax 

 coarsely rugose; the tegulse rufo-piceous at their outer margins, 

 the nervures fusco-ferruginous, the stigma ferruginous, the 

 wings fuscous, their apical margins having a darker cloud. 

 Abdomen shining red, the first segment more or less black 

 at its base, the three apical segments black, sometimes the 

 apical margin of the second segment black ; this sex, in rare 

 instances, has the legs red. B.M. 



Var. a. The abdomen with the apex only slightly fuscous. 



Male. Length 3-4 lines. Black, the head rather wider than 

 the thorax, the face covered with silvery-white pubescence ; the 

 antennae as long as the head and thorax, submoniliform ; thorax 

 and wings as in the female ; the second, third, arid basal margin 

 of the first segment red; the apical margin of the second 

 usually more or less black ; or the second and third segments 

 having each a central black band, sometimes only one of these 

 bands present. The metathorax coarsely rugose, not having 

 a distinctly enclosed space at its base. B.M. 



After a careful examination of the type specimen in the 

 Linna3an Cabinet, this appears to be the true Sphex gibba of 

 Linnaeus ; it is very distinct from the Nomada gibba of Fabricius, 

 although closely resembling it. The Sphex gibba of Linnaeus has 

 been mistaken for an insect belonging to the fossorial Hymeno- 

 ptera ; Scopoli appears to have led the way, and all subsequent 

 authors have followed him ; Kirby distinctly says in his 'Mono- 

 graphia' that Linnseus's insect is synonymous with his Melitta 

 sphecoides, but the observation has been overlooked hitherto : 

 the first describer of the Pompilus (Sphex) gibbus of authors is 

 Scopoli. 



2. Sphecodes mfescens. 

 5. ater, abdomine ferrugineo, apice nigro. 



Apis rufescens, Fourc. Ent. Par. ii. 447. 17. 

 Apis gibba, Christ. Hym. p. 183. t. 15. f. 3. 



Nomada gibba, Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 348. 12 ? , &f Cab. Mus. Dom. 

 Banks. 



