54 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



4. Andrena florea. 



A. atra, fulvo-cinereo-pubescens ; abdominis segmentorum rnar- 

 ginibus rufo cingulatis. 



Andrena florea, Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 308. 6; Syst. Piez. p. 324. 

 12?. 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 259. 32. 

 Nyland. Revis. Ap. Boreal. 251. 3. 

 Melitta Rosae, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 85, var. S & e, and the 



male described. 

 Andrena rubricata, Smith, Zool. v. 1666. 3 <J ? . 



Female. Length 6 lines. Black; the face clothed with yel- 

 lowish brown pubescence ; the flagellum rufo-piceous beneath ; 

 the pubescence on the thorax pale fulvous, fuscous on the 

 disk ; wings subhyaline, their margins faintly clouded, the ner- 

 vures pale ferruginous ; the legs have a fuscous pubescence 

 above, beneath it is pale fulvous ; that on the basal joint of the 

 tarsi beneath is dark fuscous, the claws ferruginous. Abdomen 

 ovate and shining, delicately punctured, the apical margins of 

 the segments rufo-piceous ; the first and second are usually of 

 the brightest colour ; the apical fimbria fuscous. B.M. 



Male. Length 5-5^ lines. Black ; head wider than the thorax, 

 the pubescence fulvo-cinereous ; the tegulae rufo-piceous, the 

 wings fulvo-hyaline, the nervures pale ferruginous ; the legs 

 dark mfo-testaceous, their pubescence pale fulvous, the claws 

 ferruginous. Abdomen ovate-lanceolate ; the second segment, 

 the apical margin of the first and basal margin of the third 

 segments red ; the apical margins of the following segments ob- 

 scurely rufo -testaceous ; the apex fulvous. 



Var. a. A fuscous band across the middle of the second segment. 



Var. /3. The margins only of the first and second segments nar- 

 rowly red. 



Fabricius's name for this species is adopted without doubt, 

 Dr. Nylander having seen the typical insect in the Museum at 

 Kiel, and his acute and accurate judgment may be fully relied 

 upon. This is truly a summer insect, appearing usually about 

 the first of June ; it is associated with the brightest of all the 

 sunny days of June, when the wild briony is creeping over the 

 hedge, the flowers of which are its chief delight ; it is common 

 in many of the beautiful lanes of Hampshire, near Hawley ; it 

 burrows in the sandy banks, or sometimes in the trodden path- 

 ways. This beautiful species used to occur at Highgate, but 



