BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. IJ 



[ 



Melitta spliecoides, Kirhy, Mon, Ap. Angh ii. 46. 9 ? • 



Melitta mouilicornis, Kirby, Mon, Ap, AngL ii. 47. 10. t. 15. f. 6 J . 



Melitta picea, Kirby, Mon. Ap, AngL ii. 48. 81 (J , var. 



Sphecodes piceus, Wesm, Ohs, 



Sphecodes gihbus, Nyland, Ap. Boreal. 193. 2. 



Sphecodes spliecoides, Smithy ZooL iii. 1013. f , 3 ^ & 4 $ . 



Female, Length 4-4^ lines. — Head and thorax black, the head 

 a little widei' than the thorax, strongly and closely punctured, 

 the clypeus very coarsely so ; the thorax smooth, shining, and 

 having scattered deep punctures ; the base of the metathorax 

 coarsely rugose; the tegulse rufo-piceous at their outer margins, 

 the nervures fusco-ferruginous, the stigma ferruginous, the 

 wings fuscous, their apical margins having a darker cloud. 

 Abdomen shining red, the first segment more or less black 

 at its base, the three apical segments black, sometimes the 

 apical margin of the second segment black ; this sex, in rare 

 instances, has the legs red. B.M. 



Var. a. The abdomen with the apex only slightly fuscous. 



Male. Length 3-4 lines. — Black, the head rather wider than 

 ' the thorax, the face covered with silvery -white pubescence ; the 

 antennae as long as the head and thorax, submoniliform ; thorax 

 and wings as in the female ; the second, third, and basal margin 

 of the first segment red; the apical margin of the second 

 usually more or less black; or the second and third segments 

 having each a central black band, sometimes only one of these 

 bands present. The metathorax coarsely rugose, not having 

 a distinctly enclosed space at its base. B.M. 



After a careful examination of the type specimen in the 

 Linnsean Cabinet, this appears to be the true Sphex gibba of 

 Linnseus ; it is very distinct from the Nomada gibba of Fabricius, 

 although closely resembling it. The Sphex gibba of Linnaeus has 

 been mistaken for an insect belonging to the fossorial Hymeno- 

 ptera; Scopoli appears to have led the way, and all subsequent 

 authors have followed him ; Kirbv distinctlv savs in his ^Mono- 

 graphia' that Linnseus's insect is synonymous with his Melitta 

 sphecoides, but the observation has been overlooked hitherto : 

 the first describer of the Pompilus (Sphex) gibbus of authors is 

 Scopoli. 



2. Sphecodes rufescens. 



S. ater, abdomine ferrugineo, apice nigro. 



Apis rufescens, Fourc. Ent, Par. ii. 447. 17. » . 

 Apis gibba, Christ. Hym. p. 183. t. 15. f. 3. 



Nomada gibba, Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 348. 12 ? , .^ Cah. Mus, I)om. 

 Banks, 



