232 BRITISH BEES. 



the extremity of their plantse ; the claw-joint being longer 

 than the two preceding, and the claws acutely bifid. 

 Abdomen oval, convex above, subtruncate at the base, 

 ■where it is thickly pubescent, the other segments gla- 

 brous on the disk ; the fifth segment fimbriated with 

 decumbent short hair, and the terminal segment having 

 a central triangular plate at the sides of which it is rigidly 

 setose. 



The MALE differs in having the antennae longer than, 

 the thorax, filiform, but with their several joints curved, 

 the curvature increasing towards the terminal joints, the 

 integument of the whole of the flagellum consisting of a 

 congeries of minute hexagons, the edges of which are all 

 raised, and the whole resembling shagreen ; the legs have 

 the usual sexual slighter and extended development, and 

 are necessarily less setose ; it is also deficient in the 

 transverse whitish bands of decumbent hair upon the 

 abdomen, which is more densely pubescent on the first 

 and second segments ; and the four terminal joints of 

 the posterior tarsi are conterminous with their plantae. 



NATIVE SPECIES. 



1. lonfficoi-niSjlimvLXus. 6-7 lines. (Plate VI. fig. 2 (J ? .) 

 longicornis, Kirby. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



This genus derives its name from the great length of 

 the antennae in the male, — ev, good or great, Kepa^;, horn. 

 The name of the genus is usually given from some 

 female characteristic, or from a ppculiarity common to 

 both sexes, or irrespective of any direct application, but 

 here we find it deduced from a feature exclusively mas- 

 culine. Instances of the first class we see in Colletes, 



