156 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



is undoubtedly identical with the A. luctuosa of Scopoli and 

 Schrank: the description of the latter author Is admirable. 



^ This species appears to be by far the most abundant and widely 

 distributed, occurring in Denmark and Sweden; the second 

 species, M. armata, not having been observed so far to the north 

 of Europe. ^ In this country, M. luctuosa is by far the scarcer 

 of the two, it is extremely local, and is parasitic on Anthophora 

 retusa ; it appears therefore later in the season than M. armata, 

 usually about the beginning of May ; it has occurred on Hamp- 

 stead Heath, Blackheath, near Shirley, at Ilawley, Hants, and 

 Coomb Wood, Surrev. 



2. Melecta armata. 



M 



ovato albo ornatis. 



Apis punctata, Kirdi/, Mon. Ap. Angl ii. 219. 35 J ? . 



Don, Brit. Ins. xii. 47. 376. 

 Andrena armata, Panz. Faun. Germ, 70. 22. 

 Melecta punctata, Bridle, Exped. So. de Moree, iii. 342. 717. 



Curtis, Brit, Ent. t. 125 $ . 



Smith, ZooLm. 1148. 1. 

 Melecta Clotho, Newm. Ent. Mag. ii. 513 ? . 

 Melecta Alecto, Neivm. Ent. Mag. ii. 513. 3 S • 

 Var. Melecta Tisiphone et Meg^ra, Newm. Ent. Mag. ii. 513 $ . 



Female. Length f^-^ lines.— Black; the face and vertex clothed 

 with long cinereous pubescence, that on the clypeus brightest, 

 the labrum and cheeks have a black pubescence. Thorax : the 

 disk has the pubescence cinereous, that on the scutellum is 

 black, and on each side is a tuft of white ; the wings subhvahne, 

 their margins fuscous; the intermediate and posterio/ tibiae 

 have a white patch at their base. Abdomen smooth and shining, 

 a tuft of white pubescence on each side at the base, the second 

 segment has a similar tuft, and sometimes a round spot within, 

 the third and fourth have on each side a minute round spot of 

 white pubescence. B.M. 



Var. ^. Black ; the pubescence black, intermixed on the face, 

 thorax anteriorly, and on the metathorax laterally with cine- 

 reous ; an obscure cinereous spot at the base of the intermediate 

 and posterior tibiae; the abdomen obscurely cinereous at the 

 base, the third and fourth segments have on each side a minute 

 white spot. {Megcera, Newm.) 

 Var, y. The pubescence black, except a few cinereous hairs on 



1 



