BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 149 



5. Ccelioxys mfescens. 



C. atra, rufo-villosa ; scutello utrinque dente incurvo armato, 

 margine postico obtuso angulato ; abdomine convexo. 



Coelioxys rufescens, St. Farg. 8f Serv. Encycl. Meth. x. 109. 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 519.2. 



Blanch. Hist. Nat. des Ins. iii. 413. 



Smith, Zool. iii. 1152. 3. 



Coelioxys apiculata, Nyland. Ap. Boreal, p. 282. t. 3. f. 11 *. 

 Coelioxys hebescens, Nyland. Ap. Boreal, p. 251. 2. t. 3. f. 11 a. 



Female. Length 6 lines. Black ; the head and thorax coarsely 

 punctured ; the face densely covered with short yellow pubes- 

 cence ; that on the thorax is of a paler colour ; the posterior 

 margin of the scutellum subangular, and armed on each side 

 with a curved spine or tooth; the wings fusco-hyaline, and 

 having their apical margins clouded. Abdomen shining, coni- 

 cal, convex above and beneath, strongly punctured ; an angular 

 patch on each side of the basal segment, the second and three 

 following segments with an entire fascia, which is continued 

 beneath, of pale yellowish- white pubescence ; the superior plate 

 of the apical segment lanceolate ; the lower plate angular at 

 the apex; the inferior plate not longer than the upper plate. 



B.M. 



Var. /3. The apex of the inferior plate angulated and notched at 

 the side, forming an acute appendage at the apex. 



Var. y. The inferior plate obtuse, and rounded at the apex. 



Male. Length 4^-5 lines. This sex agrees with the female in 

 the pubescence and sculpture of the head and thorax ; the face 

 has the pubescence perhaps a little longer, more dense, and 

 of a brighter yellow. The abdomen is similarly convex and 

 similarly banded ; the apical segment is produced into two bi- 

 furcate processes, the upper tooth slightly erected and obtuse, 

 the lower tooth longer and acute ; on each side at the base of 

 the segment is a straight acute spine. B.M. 



This species has been taken in abundance, and the variety y. 

 of the female occurs not unfrequently amongst them ; this variety 

 is the C. hebescens of Nylander. C. rufescens closely resembles 

 C. umbriria, but it is a larger insect, and the colour of its pubes- 

 cence is different ; some small examples approach large ones of 

 C. umbrina, but the ventral plate of the female will be found 

 to differ in form. 



