BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1?9 



entry appears : " June : found settling on a foot-path near our 

 house/' at Spitchwick, Devonshire. Without hesitation this in- 

 sect is therefore included as a British species. 



6. Megachile argentata. 



M. cinereo-villosa, subtus argenteo-villosula, abdominis seg- 

 mentis marginibus albido fasciatis. 



Apis argentata, Fair. Ent. Syst. ii. 336. 96 $ . 

 Anthophora argentata, Fair. Syst. Piez. p. 377. 22. 



Panz. Faun. Germ. 99. 16. 



Apis Leachella, (Kirby's MSS.} Steph. Syst. Cat. p. 374. 5061. 

 Megachile argentata, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 343. 1 7. 



Spin. Ins. Lig. fasc. i. 140. 9. 



Lucas, Explor. Sc. Alger. iii. 196. 123. 

 Megachile albiventris, Smith, Zool ii. 696. 8. 

 Megachile Leachella, Curtis, Brit. .Ent. iv. p. 219. 



Nyland. Revis. Ap. Boreal, p. 276. 7. 



Female. Length 3^~4| lines. Black : head as wide as the tho- 

 rax, the face densely clothed at the sides with pale yellow pu- 

 bescence ; the vertex and disk of the thorax have a short thin 

 fuscous pubescence, on the sides and beneath it is cinereous, 

 that on the legs is of the same colour ; the wings subhyaline, 

 their nervures black. Abdomen cordate, the apical margins of 

 the segments have a narrow fascia of short white pubescence, 

 the sixth segment has two spots of white pubescence ; beneath 

 densely clothed with silvery-white pubescence. B.M. 



Male. Length 4 lines. Head wider than the thorax, the face 

 densely clothed with pale fulvous pubescence, the antennae fili- 

 form. Thorax clothed above with pale fulvous pubescence ; the 

 anterior coxae armed with an obtuse tooth, the femora dilated 

 and concave beneath at their apex ; the tarsi have glittering 

 silvery pubescence above, and golden-yellow beneath, the claws 

 ferruginous, their tips black ; wings as in the female. Abdo- 

 men short, obtuse at the apex, rather widest at the base, the 

 margins of the segments have a narrow fascia of pale pubes- 

 cence, the sixth segment entirely clothed with short pale pubes- 

 cence, its margin deeply emarginate in the middle and more 

 or less denticulate on each side, the margin of the seventh seg- 

 ment entire. B.M. 



This is a very local species ; it occurs at Weybridge and at 

 Southend. It is a very active little insect -, its flight and hum 

 are exactly like that of a Saropoda ; it makes a piping sound 



