92 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



51. Andrena labialis. 



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A. nigra, pallide villosa ; thorace fulvescentl ; pedibus fulvo- 

 villosis; abdominis segmentis intermediis utrinque striga alba. 

 Mas, facie albida. 



Melitta labialis, Kirl/j/, Hon. Ap. Jngl ii. 148. 87(7. 

 Andrena labialis, Smith, Zool. v. 1921. $ <^ . 

 Nyland. Re.vis. Ap. Boreal, p. 256. 23. " 

 Andrena separata, Smith, Zool. v. 1922. 55 (var. ? ?), 



Female. Length 5^-6 lines.-Black ; the face has a pale ful- 

 vous pubescence, the clypeus naked and strongly punctured. 

 1 borax strongly punctured, thinly clothed with short fulvous 

 pubescence, at the sides and on the metathorax it is more 

 dense and of a paler colour ; the tegulaj pale testaceous ; the 

 wmgs lulvo-hyalme, their nervurcs ferruginous, faintly clouded 

 at then- apical margins ; the legs have a short fulvous pubes- 

 cencej the apical joints of the tarsi ferruginous; the scopa 

 tulvous, the floccus pale fulvous. Abdomen ovate, shining, 

 hnely and closely punctured ; the three intermediate segments 

 have a narrow fringe of pale fulvous pubescence, the first two 

 usually interrupted, the apical fimbria fulvous. B.M. 



Male Length 5-6 lines.— Black ; the clypeus and the face on 

 each side pale yellow, the former having a minute angular dot 



^? ^Z^'-'",^^'^^ ' *1^^ ^^^^ ^^^s a pale fulvous pubescence, on the disk 

 ot the thorax it is fulvous, paler on the sides and on the legs ; 

 wmgs as in the female. Abdomen ovate-lanceolate, punctured 

 as m the other sex, and having a pale fulvous fringe on the 

 apical margins of the segments, frequently obliterated on the 

 first, and usually interrupted on the two following ; the extreme 

 apex fulvous. ' ^.M. 



This bee usually appears about the end of May; it is not un- 

 common to the north of London, about Ilampstead and High- 

 gate, but I believe it to be local : I have not yet seen it from 

 the north of England. The bright colouring which this species 

 exhibits when first disclosed soon fades, and this cannot be too 

 much impressed on the mind in studying these descriptions. 



It IS very probable that A. separata is only a variety of the 

 female, notwithstanding its having a white clypeus ; it occurs in 

 company with the other, but very'rarely. 



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