44 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



This is a species which has not been captured since Dr. Leach 

 met with it in Devonshire, therefore no other locality than 

 Kingsbridge in that county is known. 



26. Halictus minutissinms. 

 H. ater, glabriusculus ; abdoraine nitidissimo. 



Melitta rainutissima, Kirby, Man. Ap. Angl. ii. 63. 22 $ ^ . 

 Halictus minutissimus, Smith, Zool. vi. 2103. 9. 

 Nyland. Revis. Ap. Boreal, p. 246. 20. 



Female. Length 2-2 lines. Black ; head and thorax closely 

 punctured ; the tips of the mandibles ferruginous ; the meta- 

 thorax rotundate ; the tegulse piceous ; the wings subhyaline and 

 iridescent. Abdomen oblong-ovate, closely punctured and 

 shining, the apical margins of the segments sometimes rufo- 

 piceous. B.M. 



Male. Length 1^2 lines. The antennas fulvous beneath, sub- 

 moniliform ; apex of the clypeus, the labrum and mandibles 

 yellow, the tips of the latter ferruginous ; the wings subhyaline, 

 splendidly iridescent ; the tarsi rufo-piceous. Abdomen elon- 

 gate-ovate, the margins of the intermediate segments depressed 

 at their base ; smooth, shining, and very closely and finely 

 punctured. B.M. 



This is the smallest species of bee found in this country ; it 

 appears to be generally distributed, and is easily distinguished 

 from all the other species. I possess a specimen infested by a 

 Sty lops ; it may be known from H . minutus by its being more 

 closely and strongly punctured : the male has a shorter and 

 more convex abdomen, and the entire insect is of a deeper black. 



Genus 5. ANDRENA. 



Apis, pt., Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 953 (1766). 

 Andrena, pt., Fair. Syst. Ent. p. 376 (1775). 

 Nomada, pt., Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 345 (1793). 

 Melitta, pt., Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 140 (1802). 



Head as wide as the thorax, subrotundate, in some species sub- 

 triangular, in the males frequently wider than the thorax ; an- 

 tennas geniculated, the flagellum subclavate, in the males fre- 

 quently elongate and filiform ; the stemmata placed in a triangle 



