BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 213 



pubescence on each side of it, and also that on the vertex, black. 

 Thorax clothed above with rufo-fulvous pubescence, on the 

 sides it is pale yellow, and beneath cinereous, as well as that on 

 the femora, the legs otherwise have a black pubescence, the 

 corbicula sometimes having a mixture of pale hairs ; the basal 

 joint of the tarsi ferruginous beneath. B.M. 



Var. a. The abdomen having the first segment and the base of 

 the second clothed with yellow pubescence, the remainder of 

 the second segment and more or less of the third covered with 

 black, thence to the apex clothed with rufo-fulvous pubes- 

 cence; the corbicula black. (A. Beckwithella, Kirby.) 



Var. |3. The abdomen clothed with black pubescence, except at 

 the base and apex, where it is rufo-ferruginous. (A. agrorum, 

 Kirby.) 



Worker. Length 3|-6 lines. Closely resembling the female ; 

 the face has a mixture of black and pale pubescence, that on 

 the vertex black; the thorax has a rufo-fulvous pubescence 

 above, on the sides it is pallid, and beneath white ; the abdo- 

 men has a pale ochraceous pubescence, usually brightest at the 

 apex, the third segment having sometimes a black band; in 

 some instances there will be two or three obscure dark bands. 



B.M. 



Var. a. The base and apex alone having pale fulvous pubescence, 

 the intermediate portion clothed with black. 



Male. Length 5-6 lines. The pubescence on the head pale 

 yellow, mixed with black on the vertex ; the antennse as long- 

 as the thorax, the joints subarcuate ; the thorax has a fulvous 

 pubescence above ; the abdomen has a pale pubescence, and 

 three or four obscure dark bands. B.M, 



Var. a. The abdomen black. (A. Curtisella, Kirby.) 

 Var. j8. The base of the abdomen black, the apex fulvous. (A. 

 agrorum <J , Kirby.) 



Having included seven of the species of our great monographer 

 in that of E. muscorum, I must observe that it has not been done 

 without having repeatedly examined the communities of a large 

 number of nests ; in some, all the varieties described were found ; 

 in different nests, one or other of the varieties will usually be 

 the most numerous ; in nests found in the north of England, the 

 variety B. agrorum is much more numerous than in the west. 

 This species is found in all parts of the United Kingdom, and is 

 undoubtedly the true A. muscorum of Linna3us : the typical 

 specimen preserved in the cabinet at the Linnsean Society is 

 a female. 



That the varieties of the male constitute but one species, may 



