180 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



extremely shrill and acute ; it is only to be found in the brightest 

 and hottest sunshine in July and August; it frequents the 

 flowers of the Echium vulgare. In one respect it differs from 

 its congeners, its labium being nearly twice as long as the palpi. 

 Mr. S. Stevens took this little bee at Little Hampton, Sussex. 

 When first disclosed the pubescence of the male is golden-ful- 

 vous, but it soon fades from exposure. 



Div. II. Anterior tarsi of the males dilated. 



7. Megachile circumcincta. 



M. pallide flavo-villosa ; capite anoque atris; antennis marts 

 articulo ultimo subdilatato ; tarsis anterioribus dilatato-cili- 

 atis. 



Apis circumcincta, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 246. 45. t. 16. f. 10 ^ . 

 Megachile circumcincta, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 335. 9. 



Smith, Zool ii. 693. 3 $ ? . 



Nyland. Ap. Boreal, p. 103 $ . 



Female. Length 5 lines. Black ; the face clothed with dark 

 brown pubescence, which is longest at the sides. The thorax 

 and two basal segments of the abdomen clothed with pale fulvo- 

 ochraceous pubescence, on the disk of the former it is more or 

 less fuscous ; the pubescence on the legs is pale above, that on 

 the tarsi beneath bright fulvous ; the wings hyaline, faintly 

 clouded at their apical margins ; the third and following seg- 

 ments of the abdomen have a black pubescence ; beneath, the 

 pubescence is bright fulvous at the base, that on the two apical 

 segments being black. B.M. 



Var. /3. Only the basal segment of the abdomen having pale 

 pubescence. 



Var. y. The three basal segments having pale pubescence. 



Male. Length 4|-5 lines. The face clothed with pale fulvous 

 and the vertex with dark brown pubescence ; the thorax has a 

 reddish-brown pubescence above, that on the sides and beneath 

 is cinereous ; the anterior femora densely fringed with griseous 

 pubescence, intermixed with pale fulvous, the coxae armed with 

 an obtuse tooth, the tarsi nearly white, dilated, and fringed with 

 pale pubescence, the first joint elongate and broadest at its 

 apex, the second small and somewhat heart-shaped, the two 

 following minute ; the claws ferruginous, their tips black ; 

 the intermediate and posterior legs have a long cinereous pubes- 



