176 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



laris has no mixture of black hairs at the apex. The size of the 

 male will separate it from its nearest ally, M. ligniseca, indepen- 

 dent of other differences. 



2. Megachile ligniseca. 



M. pallide pubescens ; abdomine fwmina wamque oblongo ; 

 coxis anterioribus inermibus. 



Apis centuncularis, Panz. Faun. Germ. 55. 12. 



Don. Brit. Ins. iv. t. 120. 



Apis ligniseca, Kirby, Mon. Ap. AngL ii. 243. 44. t. 16. f. 11 $ . 

 Megachile ligniseca, Smith, Zool. ii. 694. 4. 



Nyland. Ap. Boreal. Supp. p. 102 $ . 



Female. Length 6-7 lines. Black : the face has a little pale 

 pubescence on each side of the clypeus, and fulvous at the 

 insertion of the antennae, on the vertex it is fuscous ; on the 

 cheeks, legs, thorax beneath, on the two basal segments of the 

 abdomen, and on the metathorax it is cinereous ; on the disk 

 of the thorax it is pale fulvous ; the mandibles quadridentate, 

 the two apical teeth subacute, the inner one obtuse ; the wings 

 subhy aline, faintly clouded at their apical margins ; the tarsi 

 fulvous beneath, the claws ferruginous. Abdomen oblong- 

 ovate, the margins of the segments deeply depressed ; beneath 

 densely clothed with fulvous pubescence, dark brown at the 

 apex. B.M. 



Male. Length 5-6 lines. The face clothed with bright pale 

 yellow pubescence, at the insertion of the antennae it is obscure, 

 on the vertex black; the antennae filiform, half the length 

 of the thorax, which has a yellowish-brown pubescence on the 

 disk, on the sides and beneath it is cinereous ; the wings and 

 legs as in the other sex ; the anterior coxae unarmed ; the ab- 

 domen oblong-ovate, the two basal segments have a thin pale 

 pubescence, the margins depressed ; the intermediate ones have 

 on each side a short pale fringe ; the apex inflexed, the margin 

 of the sixth segment emarginate, the seventh entire. B.M. 



This is the largest species of the genus found in this country ; 

 it is rather more local than M. WillugJibiella, but in some situa- 

 tions it is tolerably abundant ; it occurs in many places near Lon- 

 don ; it has been taken at Highgate and Hampstead on thistle 

 heads in autumn : it is very plentiful about Battersea, and also 

 at Erith in Kent ; it has not occurred in the north of England, 



