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18 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Melitta gibba, Kirhy, Mon, Ap. Angl ii. 42. 7. 

 Sphecodes gibba, Latr. Hist. Nat, xiii. 368. 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 542, 3. t. 24. f. 1 $ , f, 2 ^^ . 



Smith, Zool,\\\,\{S\2, 1. 

 Sphecodes pellucidus, Smith. ZooLiii. 1014. 3 <? $ (var. ?) 



De Geer.ii. 7. 55. t. 32. f. 6.— Proabeille noire et rousse. 



Female. Length 4-4i lines. — Head and thorax black and 

 shining, closely and finely punctured; head about the same 

 width as the thorax, the flagellum testaceous beneath, the 

 face having a scattered short griseous pubescence ; the disc 

 of the thorax not so closely punctured as the head, the meta- 

 thorax having at its base a semicircular rugose enclosed space ; 

 wings fusco-hyaline, the nervures black, the anterior tibia 

 slightly ferruginous in front ; the apical joints of the tarsi fer- 

 ruginous ; the abdomen shining, delicately punctured, the sixth 

 segment and apical margin of the fifth black. B.M. 



Male. ^ Length 3-3i lines.— Coloured as in the female, differing 

 only in having the base of the abdomen more or less black, in 

 rare instances the apex only black; the face clothed with white 

 pubescence; the wings clearer than in the female ; the antenna 

 not so long as the head and thorax, slightly submoniliform. B.M. 



This species is equally abundant with the preceding and is 

 found in great numbers in the autumn, frequenting various 

 flowers, but particularly thistle-heads ; it is readily distinguished 

 from the S. gibbus by its having its thorax much more finely 

 punctured, and by the colour of its wings ; its head is not propor- 

 tionably so wide, and the antennae of its males are shorter. 



3. Sphecodes subquadratus. 



S. ater, capite magno subquadrato, abdomine ferrugineo, apice 

 nigro. 



■ n 



Sphecodes gibbus, Wesm. Obs. 



Sphecodes subquadratus, Smith, ZooL iii. 1014. 5. f. 5. 



Female. Length A-4\ lines.— Head and thorax black, the 

 former subquadrate, closely and finely punctured; thorax spa- 

 ringly punctured on the disc ; the wings subhyaline towards 

 their base, their apical margins having a fuscous cloud ; the 

 apical joints of the tarsi ferruginous; the abdomen red, having 

 the apical segments black. B.M. 



Male. Length 3-3i lines.— Coloured as in the female, but much 

 more closely punctured on the disc of the thorax; the head 

 slightly but not so decidedly subquadrate as in the female; the 



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