ENTOMOLOGICAL CABINET. 



ANDRENA NIGRO-^NEA. Kirby. 



Body black and densely covered with fulvus hair : 

 head, front covered with tawny hair, on the summit 

 may be seen the ocelli placed in a triangle, the an- 

 tennae are black : thorax black and covered with 

 rufus hair : wings transparent and slightly irredes- 

 cent towards their extremities, the nervures testa- 

 ceous : legs black and covered with brown hair ; the 

 thighs and shanks of the hinder legs beneath cover- 

 ed with long white hair. This bee is not uncommon 

 in April and May. We have figured it in order to re- 

 mind the entomologist of the very curious parasite 

 that is occasionally found on it, namely the Stylops. 

 As so many species have been added since the disco- 

 very of the Rev. W. Kirby, we could wish for the 

 credit of British entomologists that they will still 

 persevere in the pursuit of this singular order of in- 

 sects. Mr. Curtis, in his " Guide to an arrangement 

 of British insects," has enumerated six species of 

 Stylops, and since the completion of his Guide has 

 added not only another specie to the order, but a new 

 genus. Our friends J. C. Dale, Esq. of Dorset, the 

 Rev. G. T. Rudd, and those successful and indefatig- 

 able collectors of the minute hymenoptera, the Mr. 

 Walkers, of Southgate, have been most fortunate in 

 their researches, the result of which, we have great 

 hopes, will soon be made public. It may not be 

 amiss to state the method of detecting the Stylops 

 melittos and we cannot do better than quote from the 

 Rev. author of " Monographia Apum Anglice" 



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