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BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 73 



Male. Length 5-6 lines. — The head wider than the thorax; the 

 mandibles foreipate and having a minute tooth at their base, 

 the tips ferruginous; the face has a reddish-brown pubes- 

 cence at the sides, intermixed with black above the clypeus : 

 the antennae as long as the thorax, the joints of the flagellum 

 arcuate. Thorax shining, the pubescence on the disk sparing, 

 rufo-fulvous, at the sides and beneath much paler, as well as 

 that on the legs : the ajncal joints of the tarsi rufo-testaceous. 

 Abdomen shining, lanceolate, and having a tuft of pale ferru- 

 ginous pubescence on the basal segment, the margins of the 

 two first segments usually slightly depressed, a thin pubes- 

 cence is scattered over the abdomen, particularly at the sides, 

 the apex rufo-testaceous and having a little fulvous pubes- 



cence. 



B.M. 



This species has several striking specific characteristics ; the 

 female is distinguished by its unusually long antennae, and by * 

 its scopa being black above, and silvery beneath ; the male also 

 has its antennae more elongate than usual, and has a tuft of pu- 

 bescence at the base of the abdomen, like the male of A, fulva : 

 its face has dark pubescence, that of fulva is white, and the 

 tooth, usually found at the base of its mandibles beneath, is 

 much shorter than in falva, sometimes reduced to a sharp ano-le. 



This bee is very abundant near London, particularly ""ori 

 liampstead Heath : it is frequently infested by Stylops Melittce, 

 of which I have twice succeeded in obtaining a male from it] 

 and have kept the Andrena from three to four weeks ahve by 

 supplymg it daily with fresh flowers ; by these means the male 

 Stylops may be obtained, or the female may be observed pro- 

 ducing a multitudinous host of larv^. 



This species has been received from Ireland ; it appears to be 

 generally distributed. Specimens from Scotland have the pu- 

 bescence much darker coloured, that on the scopa of the female 

 above, and also that on the face of the male, is black. This 

 variety is from Loch Rannoch, Perthshire. 



28. Andrena conjimcta. 



A. nigra, thorace rufescenti-piloso ; tibiis posticis rufo-testaceis, 

 scopa fulvo-aurea. 



Andrena conjuncta, Smith, ZqoL v. 1744. 3L 



Female Length 5^ lines.— Black; the face thinly clothed with 

 dark iulvo-ferrugmous pubescence; the clypeus and thorax 

 above strongly punctured ; the metathorax has at its base a 



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