-^ - - — ■ ^ 



^'^ BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN, 



4, Andrena florea, 



m 



A. ati-a, fulvo^cinereo-pubescens ; abdominis segmentorum mar- 

 ginibus rufo cingulatis. 



Andrena florea, Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 308. 6 ; Syst. Piez. p. 324. 



12 $ . 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 259. 32. 



Nyland. Revis. Ap. Boreal. 251. 3. 



Melitta Rosse, ^e>%, Hon. Ap. Angl. ii. 85, var. ^ & e, and the 

 male described. 



Andrena rubricata, Smith, Zool. v. 1666. 3(J ? . 



Female. Length 6i lines.— Black ; the face clothed with yel- 

 lowish broM'n pubescence ; the flagellum rufo-piceous beneath • 

 the pubescence on the thorax pale fulvous, fuscous on the 

 disk ; wmgs subhyalme, their margins faintly clouded, the ner- 

 vures pale ferruginous ; the legs have a fuscous pubescence 

 above, beneath it is pale fulvous ; that on the basal joint of the 

 tarsi beneath is dark fuscous, the claws ferruginous. Abdomen 

 ovate and shining, delicately punctured, the apical margins of 

 the segments rufo-piceous ; the first and second are usually of 

 the brightest colour ; the apical fimbria fuscous. B.M. 



Male. Length 5-5i lines.— Black ; head wider than the thorax, 

 the pubescence fulvo-cinereous ; the tegula; rufo-piceous, the 

 wmgs lulvo-hyalme, the nervures pale ferruginous ; the legs 

 dark rufo-testaceous, their pubescence pale fulvous, the claws 

 ferruginous. Abdomen ovate-lanceolate ; the second segment, 

 the apical margin of the first and basal margin of the third 

 segments red ; the apical margins of the following segments ob- 

 scurely rufo-testaceous ; the apex fulvous. 



Z^^' « ^^"^^^"^ b^'^'i 'icross the middle of the second segment. 

 Var. /^. Ihe margins only of the first and second segments nar- 

 rowly red. 



Fabricius's name for this species is adopted without doubt, 

 ^r. ^ylander having seen the typical insect in the Museum at 

 Kiel, and his acute and accurate judgment may be fully relied 

 upon. This is truly a summer insect, appearing usually about 

 the first of June ; it is associated with the brightest of all the 

 sunny days of June, when the wild briony is creeping over the 

 hedge, the flowers of which are its chief delight ; it is commou 

 in many of the beautiful lanes of Hampshire, near Hawley; it 

 burrows m the sandy banks, or sometimes in the trodden path- 

 ways. This beautiful species used to occur at Highgate, but 



