160 BEES OF GRKAT BRITAIN. 



6. Ccelioxys Vectis. 



C atra ; capite thoraceque pallido-villosis ; scutello utrinque 

 dentato, margine postico rotundato; abdominis segmentis 

 utrinque macula tomentosa alba ornatis. 



Coelioxys Vectis, Curtis, Brit. Ent, viii. t. 349. 



Smiths Zool. iii. 1152. 2. 

 Ccelioxys temporalis, Nyland, Ap, Boreal p. 253. 4. 



Female, Length 6 lines. — Black; head and thorax rugose- 

 punctate I the face has a pale yellow pubescence, that on the 

 clypeus very short, its anterior margin having a fulvous fringe ; 

 the cheeks and breast have a silvery-white pubescence ; the 

 posterior margin of the scutellum rounded, and armed on each 

 side with a spine. Abdomen shining ; the base has on each side 

 a large quadrate patch, and the third and three following seg- 

 ments have on each side, at their basal margins, an elongate 

 angular spot of white pubescence ; the apical segment sublan- 

 ceolate^ the inferior valve longest, finely punctured, roughened 

 at its apex ; the ventral plate lanceolate ; beneath, the basal 

 segment has a spot of white pubescence in the middle, and the 

 four following segments are fringed with white. B.M. 



Male. — Very closely resembling the female, being of the same 

 jet-black colour, and having the abdomen similarly spotted with 

 snow-white pubescence, the apical segment produced, forming 

 two bifurcate projections, the upper teeth scarcely produced, 

 viewed laterally appearing to be acute^ the inferior teeth longer 

 and acute; viewed from above, the upper teeth are rounded at 

 their apex; on each side of the apical segment is an acute spine, 

 and another at the angles of the fifth segment. B.M. 



This very distinct and beautiful species is local. Mr. Curtis first 

 discovered it at Black Gang Chine, in the Isle of Wight, and has 

 given an excellent figure of it in his ' British Entomology.' In 

 1852, in the beginning of July, it occurred in tolerable abun- 

 dance in Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight ; it is the parasite of Me- 

 gachile maritima. It has also been found at Little Hampton, 

 Sussex, and in Yorkshire, and has recently occurred at Wimble- 

 don in some numbers. 



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