12 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



This s})ecies most closely resembles " communis,'' but is very 

 distinct ; its coarse puncturnig, when compared with that insect 

 will serve to distinguish it, and it is also larger. Only once 

 met with, on a collecting excursion at Birch Wood, Kent- 

 which, about the years 1839-40, was an excellent locality for 

 many hymenoptcrous insects, particularly that side which faces 

 the west ; but all the old uncultivated land is planted, and many 

 species are not now to be met with. 



6- Prosopis signata. 



P. atra, fronte maculata ; abdomine segmento primo margine 

 utrinque albo. 



Sphex signata, Panz. Faun, Germ. 53. 2. 



Mehtta sigtiata, Kirdi/, Mo7i. Ap, AngL ii. 41. 6 c? ? . 



Prosopis atrata, Fahr, Syst, Piez. 295. 10 c?. 



Hylseus signatus, SmitK Trans. Ent, Soc. iv. 30. 3; ZoolM, 2206. 9. 



Female, Length 3^ hnes.— Black; the ilagellum fulvous beneath; 

 the face has on each side an angular yellow stripe, sometimes 

 only a small spot, not reaching above the insertion of the an- 

 tennas ; a line on each side of the collar, the tubercles, a spot 

 on the tegulae in front and the extreme base of the teguLx, yel- 

 lowish-white ; the tibiae sometimes entirely black, or only one 

 or more pairs slightly pale at their extreme base ; the anterior 

 tibiae usnally more or less fulvous in front. The abdomen 

 smooth, shining, and delicately punctured ; the extreme lateral 

 apical margins of the basal segment have sometimes a little 

 fringe of white pubescence. B.M. 



Var. /3. The face sometimes entirely black. 



Male. Length 3-3| lines.— The face below the insertion of the 

 antennae white; the Hagellum, except the two basal joints, ful- 

 vous ; the thorax has a tine short scattered white pubescence, 

 particularly on the sides of the metathorax and beneath ; some- 

 times a spot on each side of the collar, another on the tubercles 

 behind, and a minute one on the tegula:? in front, white; the 

 extreme base of the posterior tarsi and tibiae white ; the anterior 

 tibiae fulvous in front ; the claws ferruginous. The abdomen 

 closely and distinctly punctured, more strongly than in the 

 female, the basal segment having on its apical m^argin laterally 

 a short fringe of white pubescence ; the margins of the other 

 segments shghtly pubescent laterally. B.M. 



This is the largest British species and easily distinguished 

 St. Fargeau is not quoted ; he had so confused an acquaintance 



I 



