56 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Andrena marginata, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 255. 26. 



Nyland. Ap. Boreal, p. 209. 2 ; Revis. Ap. Boreal p. 25] . 4. 

 Melitta Schrankella, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 90. 42. 

 Melitta affinis, Kirby, Mon, Ap. Angl. ii. 92. 43 (var. e). 

 Andrena Cetii, Smith, Zool. v. 1668. 6 ^ $ . 



Female. Length 5 lines. Black ; the face has a thin cinereous 

 pubescence, and a line of silvery pile along the inner margins of 

 the eyes ; the flagellum rufo-piceous towards the apex beneath. 

 Thorax thinly clothed with pale ochraceous pubescence ; the 

 wings subhyaline, slightly clouded at their apex, the nervures 

 ferruginous ; the legs have a short cinereous pubescence, their 

 floccus and scopa beneath are of the same colour, the latter 

 fuscous above. Abdomen oblong-ovate, the basal segment 

 black, except its apical margin, which, as well as the rest of the 

 abdomen, is red. B.M. 



Var. a. The two apical segments fuscous. 



Var. /3. The three apical segments fuscous. 



Var. y. The three apical segments and a'dot on the third fuscous. 



Var. d. The three apical segments and a dot on the second and 

 third fuscous. 



Var. . Only the margins of three basal segments obscurely 

 red. 



Male. Length 4 lines. Fuscous ; the face and disk of the 

 thorax have an ochraceous pubescence, the clypeus white and 

 having two black dots ; the wings as in the female ; the legs 

 rufo-testaceous, their pubescense pale ochraceous. Abdomen 

 lanceolate, the apical margins of the segments obscurely rufo- 

 piceous. 



The female of this elegant insect is subject to great variety 

 of colouring, some of these differences are indicated ; the last is, 

 on a comparison of specimens, undoubtedly the Melitta affinis of 

 Kirby ; the pubescence is frequently hoary or white ; the species 

 does not appear before July, and is soon bleached by exposure. 

 Entomologists may meet with this beautiful insect in Hampshire, 

 but it is very local; Mr. S. Stevens has several times captured 

 it in Sussex in the month of August ; Mr. Sprague reports that 

 it is not at all uncommon in the meadows at Cambridge; pro- 

 bably A.frontalis is the male in a worn condition. 



