BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 163 



Female. Length 4-6 lines. Head and thorax nigro-aeneous ; 

 the face clothed with black pubescence, and armed on each 

 side of the clypeus with a stout horn, which is oblique, or 

 sometimes notched at the apex, the horns bent inwards. 

 Thorax : the disk clothed with black pubescence, intermixed 

 with fulvous posteriorly; that on the sides beneath, on the 

 metathorax and femora, of a yellowish-white ; the pubescence 

 on the tibiae and tarsi fulvous, that on the tarsi beneath rufo- 

 fulvous ; the calcaria and claws rufo-testaceous ; wings sub- 

 hyaline, clouded towards their apex, the marginal cell having a 

 fuscous stripe along its anterior margin; the nervures fusco- 

 ferruginous. B.M. 



Var. /3. Length 4 lines. The horns on the face angular. 



Male. Length 31-5 lines. Strongly resembling the female, 

 the face unarmed, clothed with long white hair ; the an- 

 tennae slender and filiform, nearly as long as the thorax ; the 

 head and thorax are of a blue-green, the wings as in the 

 female ; the pubescence on the disk of the thorax long and of 

 an ochraceous tint, the legs clothed as in the other sex. Ab- 

 domen densely clothed with long fulvous pubescence, suberect, 

 and arranged in fasciae; the margin of the apical segment 

 entire. B.M. 



This is by far the most abundant species of the genus, and is 

 distributed over the country ; it is met with in all parts of the 

 continent, from the south of Italy to the north of Lapland. The 

 beautiful bright colouring of the insect soon fades from age, 

 and is met with of all shades between that of the description 

 and an entirely hoary pubescence. 



Osmia cornuta has been recorded as being found in this 

 country, but there is no satisfactory evidence of the fact ; it is 

 therefore omitted. 



2. Osmia aurulenta. 



O. nigra, ferrugineo-rufo-villosa ; abdominis segmentis margi- 

 nibus fulvis, ano in mare bidentato. 



Apis aurulenta, Panz. Faun. Germ. 63. 22 $ . 

 Apis haeraatoda, Panz. Faun. Germ. 81. 20 $ . 

 Apis tunensis, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 269. 56. 

 Megachile tunensis, Latr. Hist. Nat. xiv. 58. 13 ?. 



Spin. Ins. Lig. fasc. i. p. 144. 11. 

 Osmia aurulenta, Latr. Encycl. Meth. viii. 584. 19. 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 323. t. 20. f . 4 ? . 



Nyland. Ap. Boreal. Supp. p. 103. 



