96 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



55. Andrena minutula. 



A. atra, glabriuscula ; cinereo-subvillosa ; abdomine nitido, sub- 

 rotundo ; tibiarum posticarum scopa argentea. 



Melitta minutula, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 161. 101 < $ . 

 Melitta parvula, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 162. 103 (var.). 

 Andrena minutula, Smith, Zool. v. 1925. 61. 

 Andrena parvula, Smith, Zool. v. 1925. 63. 

 Nyland. Revis. Ap. Boreal, p. 258. 29. 

 Andreua subopaca, Nyland. Ap. Boreal.^. 221. 19. 



Female. Length 3-3 lines. Black ; the face has on each side 

 a line of silvery pubescence, which extends to the vertex of the 

 eyes, the clypeus is also sprinkled with a few glittering hairs ; 

 the flagellum is usually rufo-piceous beneath. Thorax thinly 

 sprinkled with pale pubescence, most dense at the sides of the 

 metathorax, which is rounded posteriorly and finely rugose ; 

 wings slightly fuscous, the nervures ferruginous ; the legs have 

 a glittering hoary pubescence, the floccus white, the scopa 

 silvery and glittering : the tarsi beneath fulvous, the calcaria pale 

 testaceous. Abdomen subovate, shining, the apical fimbria 

 fusco-cinereous ; the margins of the segments beneath ciliated 

 with glittering hairs. B.M. 



Male. Length 2^-3 lines. The entire pubescence cinereous, 

 that on the clypeus very bright and glittering ; the flagellum 

 rufo-piceous beneath ; the wings subhyaline, splendidly irides- 

 cent ; the legs have a beautiful glittering pubescence, the cal- 

 caria pale testaceous, the apical joints of the tarsi rufo-testa- 

 ceous. Abdomen subovate, convex, smooth and shining. B.M. 



Var. a. The legs rufo-testaceous. 



Var. |3. The posterior tarsi entirely testaceous. 



This little bee usually appears in May, when the Germander 

 Speedwell ( Veronica Chamcedrys) is in flower, to which I have 

 observed it to be partial. For some years past males and females 

 have been taken on the above flowers on a bank at the side of 

 Bishop's Wood, Hampstead. Mr. Kirby says, that the male of 

 M. parvula has black hair on its face ; this is certainly an error. 

 He does not say why he placed them together. After the most 

 careful examination of the typical specimens described by Kirby, 

 no difference can be found between A. parvula and A. minutula. 

 In the Kirbyan Cabinet are specimens of A. nana placed as 

 varieties of A. minutula. 



The antennae of A. minutula, female, are frequently more or less 

 rufo-piceous towards the apex ; and specimens occur whose legs 



