BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97 



and abdomen are testaceous. It thus becomes a matter of great 

 doubt whether the two can possibly be distinct. 



56. Andrena nana. 



A. atra, albido-villosula ; abdomine nitido, segmentis basi punc- 

 tulatissimis ; tibiarum posticarum scopa argentea. 



Melitta nana, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 161. 102 $ . 

 Aiidrena nana, Smith, Zool. v. 1925. 62. 

 Nyland. Revis. Ap. Boreal p. 258. 30. 



Female. Length 3^ lines. Black ; on each side of the face a 

 line of silvery pile along the margins of the eyes. Thorax : a 

 little cinereous pubescence on the metathorax and at the sides, 

 that on the legs is of the same colour ; the tegulae piceous, the 

 wings subhyaline, the nervures ferruginous ; the posterior legs 

 have the floccus white, the scopa silvery, bright and glittering ; 

 the basal joint of the tarsi slightly fulvous within ; the apical 

 joints of the tarsi ferruginous. Abdomen elongate-ovate, shining 

 and delicately punctured ; the apical margins of the segments 

 depressed, and impunctate ; on the apical margins of the three 

 intermediate segments laterally, a fringe of white pubescence ; 

 the apical fimbria white, with more or less of a fulvous tinge ; 

 beneath, the margins of the segments thinly ciliated with white 

 hairs. B.M. 



This little bee is very liable to be confounded either with A. 

 parvula or more probably with the A. Coitana, which indeed it 

 much resembles ; it will be known at once from the former by 

 the form of its abdomen, and from the latter by its silvery 

 scopa, and by its thorax being much more finely punctured. 

 The male given by Kirby belongs to A. minutula, but whether 

 the black-faced male assigned to A. parvula belongs to A. nana 

 is not quite certain, another name therefore is given to it provi- 

 sionally. This is not a common species, although widely distri- 

 buted ; it is met with in Yorkshire, and occasionally in the 

 London district in June and July. 



57. Andrena nigrifrons. 

 A. atra, cinereo-subvillosa ; facie atro-villosula. 

 Melitta nana, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 161. 102 $ . 



Male. Black ; the face clothed with black pubescence, the man- 

 dibles ferruginous at their apex, the flagellum nigro-piceous 



F 



