*? 



J. 



I 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1/9 



entry appears : " June : found settling on a foot-patli neav our 

 house/' at Spitcliwick, Devonshire. Without hesitation this in- 

 sect is therefore included as a British species. 



6. MegacMle argentata, 



M. cinereo-villosa, subtus argenteo-villosula^ abdominis seg- 

 mentis marginibus albido fasciatis. 



Apis argentata, Fabr. Ent, Syst, ii. 336. 96 ? • 

 Antliopliora argentata, Fahr. Syst, Piez, p. 377. 22. 



Panz, Faun. Germ, 99. 16. 

 Apis Leachella, {Kirhy's MSS.) SfepJu Syst. Cat. p. 374. 506L 

 Megachile argentata, St. Farg. Hym. ii. 343. 17. 



Spin. Ins. Lig. fasc. i. 140. 9. 



Lucas, Explor. Sc. Alger, iii. 196. 123. 

 Megachile albivcntris, Smithy Zool. ii. 696. 8. 

 Megachile Leachella, Curtis, Brit. Ent. iv. p. 219. 



Nyland, Revis. Ap. Boreat, p. 276. 7. 



Female. Length 3i— 4^ lines. — Black ; head as wide as the tho- 

 rax^ the face densely clothed at the sides with pale yellow pu- 

 bescence; the vertex and disk of the thorax have a' short thin 

 fuscous pubescence^ on the sides and beneath it is cinereous, 

 that on the legs is of the same colovir ; the wings subhyaline, 

 their nervures black. Abdomen cordate, the apical margins of 

 • the segments have a narrow fascia of short w^hite pubescence, 

 , the sixth segment has two spots of white pubescence; beneath 

 densely clothed with silvery-white pubescence. B.M. 



Male. Length 4 lines. — Head wider than the thorax, the face 

 densely clothed with pale fulvous pubesceiice, the antennse fili- 

 form .^ Thorax clothed above with pale fulvous pubescence ; the 

 anterior coxa? armed with an obtuse tooth, the femora dilated 

 and concave beneath at their apex; the tarsi have glittering 

 silvery pubescence above, and golden-yellow beneath, the claws 

 ferruginous, their tips black; wings as in the female. Abdo- 



.men short, obtuse at the apex, rather widest at the base, the 

 margins of the segments have a narrow fascia of pale pubes- 

 cence, the sixth segment entirely clothed with short pale pubes- 

 cence, its naargin deeply emarginate in the middle and more 



or less denticulate on each side, the margin of the seventh seg=^ 

 ment entire, B^]Vj 



This is a very local species ; it occurs at Weybridge and at 

 Southend. It is a very active little insect ; its flight and hum 

 are exactly like that of a Saropoda; it makes a piping sound 



