BEES OP GREAT BRITAIN. 155 



1. Melecta luctuosa. 



M. aterrima, albido-villosa ; abdominis segmentis utrinque puncto 

 subquadrato niveo ornatis. 



Apis luctuosa, Scop. Ann. Hist. Nat. iv. p. 9. 



Schrank, Ins. Aust. p. 404. 816. 



Rossi, Faun. Etrusc. ii. 105. 918. 

 Apis punctata, Fabr. Syst. Ent. p. 385. 43 ; Ent. Syst. ii. 337. 99. 



Panz. Faun. Germ. 35. 23 ? . 

 Melecta punctata, Latr. Hist. Nat. Ins. xiv. 48. 



Fabr. Syst. Piez. 387. 7. 



Spin. Ins. Lig. fasc. i. 153. 3. 



Brulle, Exped. Sc. de Moree, p. 342. 757. 



Blanch. Hist. Nat. Ins. 411. t. 6. f. 8. 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 441. 1. 



Lucas, Explor. Sc. Alger. iii. 211. 145. 

 Melecta notata, Illig. Mag. v. 99. 2. 

 Symmorpha punctata, King, Illig. Mag. vi. p. 227. 

 Melecta Atropos, Newm. Ent. Mag. ii. 514. 6 < . 



Smith, Zool. iii. 1149. 2 $ $ . 

 Melecta Lachesis, Newm. Ent. Mag. ii. 514. 5 $ . 



Female. Length 6 lines. Jet-black, shining; the clypeus 

 covered with snow-white pubescence, on the vertex a little black 

 pubescence, the margin being fringed with white. Thorax : 

 the pubescence on the prothorax cinereous, the tegulae and scu- 

 tellum fringed with black, a tuft of white beneath the wings 

 and another behind their insertion ; the scutellum has on each 

 side an obtuse tooth, sometimes nearly obsolete. Abdomen : 

 the basal segment has on each side a tuft of snow-white pubes- 

 cence, the second, third and fourth segments have on each side 

 an oblong- quadrate snow-white spot ; all the tibiae have a snow- 

 white spot at their base; the wings fusco-hyaline, darkest 

 towards their apical margins. B.M. 



Male. This sex only differs in having a white fringe on the an- 

 terior and intermediate femora and the addition of two spots on 

 the fifth abdominal segment. B.M. 



The synonymy of the two species of the genus Melecta which 

 we find in this country has been greatly confused, and the true 

 Melecta punctata has been deemed an unfathomable enigma : it 

 is quite true that the descriptions of the punctata of Fabricius 

 would apply equally well to either of the indigenous species ; but 

 on referring to his last work, the ' Systema Piezatorum/ we find 

 the genus Melecta of Latreille adopted, and the M. punctata 

 given as synonymous with the species figured by Panzer, which 



