176 BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



^ 



laris has no mixture of black hairs at the apex. The size of the 

 male will separate it from its nearest ally, M, Ugnisecay indepen- 

 dent of other differences. 



2. Megachile ligniseca. 



M. pallide pubescens ; abdomine fcemince marisqne oblongo ; 

 coxis anterioribus inermibus. 



Apis centuncularis, Panz, Faim. Germ, 55, 12, 



Don. Brit. Ins. iv. t. 120. 

 Apis ligniseca, Kirby, Man. Ap. AnyL ii. 243. 44. t. 16. f, 11 ^J. 

 Megachile ligniseca, Smith, Zoo!, ii, 694» 4. 



Nyland. Ap, Boreal. Supp, p. 102 ^ . 



Female. Length 6-7 lines. — Black ; the face has a little pale 

 pubescence on each side of the clypeus, and fulvous at the 

 insertion of the antennae, on the vertex it is fuscous ; on the 

 cheeks, legs, thorax beneath, on the two basal segments of the 

 abdomen, and on the metathorax it is cinereous ; on the disk 

 of the thorax it is pale fulvous ; the mandibles quadridentate, 

 the two apical teeth subacute, the inner one obtuse ; the wings 

 subhyaline, faintly clouded at their apical margins ; the tarsi 

 fulvous beneath, the claws ferruginous. Abdomen oblong- 

 ovate, the margins of the segments deeply depressed ; beneath 

 densely clothed with fulvous pubescence, dark brown at the 

 apex. B.M. 



Male. Length 5-6 lines. — The face clothed wdth bright pale 

 yellow pubescence, at the insertion of the antennse it is obscure, 

 on the vertex black; the antennae filiform, half the length 

 of the thorax, which has a yellowish-brown pubescence on the 

 disk, on the sides and beneath it is cinereous; the wings and 

 legs as in the other sex; the anterior coxae unarmed; the ab- 

 domen oblong-ovate, the two basal segments have a thin pale 

 pubescence, the margins depressed ; the intermediate ones have 

 on each side a short pale fringe ; the apex inflexed, the margin 

 of the sixth segment emarginate, the seventh entire. B.M. 



■ This is the largest species of the genus found in this country; 

 it is rather moi-e local than M. Willughbiella, but in some situa- 

 tions it is tolerably abundant ; it occurs in many places near Lon- 

 don ; it has been taken at Highgate and Ilampstead on thistle 

 heads in autumn ; it is very plentiful about Battersea, and also 

 at Erith in Kent ; it has not occurred in the north of England. 



