20 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



The size alone would serve to distinguish this little bee from 

 its congeners, but it is subject to very considerable variety; the 

 female has sometimes the extreme base, as well as the apex of 

 the abdomen black, and the head occasionally subquadrate ; the 

 legs are sometimes nearly black. The males vary much in the 

 degree of colouring in the legs, specimens occur with them pale 

 testaceous-red ; the abdomen also varies much in its markings : 

 I formerly considered it to constitute two species, but I have 

 satisfied myself since that it is only a variable insect. In the 

 Linnsean Cabinet is the authentic specimen of the Sphex ephippia 

 of Linnaeus, one of the varieties of this insect. The M. divisa 

 of Kirby is a dark example of the male, having the antennae 

 black, but they are usually more or less fulvous beneath ; 

 but in truth it is almost impossible to decide whether the latter 

 variety be not in reality a very minute male of S. gibbus : many 

 of the Kirbyan specimens preserved in the Entomological So- 

 ciety's Museum are now in a very decayed condition. 



5. Sphecodes fuscipennis. 

 S. ater, abdomine ferrugineo, alis nigricantibus. 



Dichroa fuscipennis, Germ. Faun. Ins. Europ. fasc. 5. t. 18. 



Sphecodes Latreillii, Wesm. Obs. 



Sphecodes nigripes, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 542. 2. 



Lucas, Explo. Sc. Alger. iii. 222. 168. 

 Sphecodes rugosa, Smithy Zool. vi. 2208. 

 Apis rufa, Sulz. Hist. Ins. 198. t. 27. f. 14 ? 



Female. Length 5-6 lines. Head and thorax black, strongly 

 and closely punctured, the face thinly covered with griseous 

 pubescence ; the vertex and thorax have a little scattered black 

 pubescence ; the abdomen red, the apex nigro-piceous ; the 

 legs black, their pubescence black ; the wings dark fuscous and 

 having a violet iridescence. B.M. 



Male. Length 4^-5 lines. Black, the head a little wider than 

 the thorax, the face densely clothed with silvery-white pubes- 

 cence ; the antennae submoniliform ; the thorax coarsely punc- 

 tured, the metathorax rugose ; the wings subfuscous, their 

 apical margins clouded, their nervures ferruginous ; the legs 

 have a silvery pubescence, the apical joints of the tarsi fer- 

 ruginous. Abdomen red, strongly punctured, the apical margins 

 of the segments smooth and shining. B.M. 



This species is included in the British Bees, on the following 

 authorities : there are two specimens in the British Collection 

 at the British Museum, said to have been captured by Dr. Leach 



