BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 23 



Div. I. Abdomen of the females having white abdominal fascia, 

 usually more or less interrupted ; the first recurrent nervure 

 received towards the apex of the second marginal cell. 



1. Halictns rubicundus. 



H. ater, mfescenti-pubescens ; abdomine segmentis margine 

 albis ; tarsis tibiisque posticis fulvis. 



Apis rubicundus, Christ. Hym. p. 190. t. 16. f. 10 9 . 

 Apis flavipes, Panz. Faun. Germ. 56. 17 $ . 

 Melitta rubicurida, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 53. 14. 



Curtis, Brit. Ent. x. t. 449. 

 Halictus nidulans, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 269. 5. 

 Halictus rubicundus, Kirby, Faun. Boreal. Amer. p. 267. 1 ? 



Nyland. Ap. Boreal, p. 198. 2. 



Smith, Zool. vi. 2041. 2. 



Female. Length 4-5 lines. Black ; tbe face clothed with short 

 thin pale fulvous pubescence ; the labrum bearded with golden- 

 yellow hairs ; the flagellum slightly nigro-piceous beneath at 

 its apex. Thorax : the disk clothed with fulvo-ferruginous pu- 

 bescence, on the sides and metathorax it is paler ; the tegulae 

 ferruginous, the wings subhyaline, faintly clouded at their 

 apical margins,, the nervures testaceous ; the apical joints of 

 the anterior tarsi., the intermediate pair, as well as the tibiae 

 above, and the posterior tibiae and tarsi, fulvous ; their pubes- 

 cence of a golden-yellow; the basal joint of the posterior tarsi 

 has a fuscous stain outside. Abdomen ovate, smooth and 

 shining, having a little pale fulvous pubescence at the base ; all 

 the segments have a narrow white fascia on their apical margins, 

 the first and second usually interrupted. B.M. 



Male. The apex of the clypeus and the labrum yellow ; the an- 

 tenna? about the length of the head and thorax, fusco-ferrugi- 

 nous beneath ; the face has a little griseous pubescence, that on 

 the vertex and disk of the thorax is faintly yellowish ; the tibiae 

 and tarsi yellow, the former having a dark stain beneath. Ab- 

 domen elongate, the first four segments having a narrow white 

 fascia on their apical margins, the first three interrupted. B.M. 



This is probably the most widely distributed species of the 

 genus ; it is found in every part of the United Kingdom, and is 

 scattered throughout Europe. The specimens from North America 

 very closely resemble our insect, but are scarcely identical ; they 

 have the abdomen more closely punctured ; Mr. Kirby considered 

 them the same ; the species is described by Say as H. parallelus ; 

 if distinct, the similarity is very striking. 



