5. cilissa. 75 



tibiae and tarsi rufo-testaceous, the anterior and intermediate tarsi 

 more or less obscure; the scopa of a golden yellow. Abdomen 

 oblong-ovate, slightly depressed, shining, very delicately and closely 

 punctured ; the apical margins of the three intermediate segments 

 have a narrow fringe of white pubescence, the first and second 

 usually widely interrupted ; the apical fimbria bright fulvous ; the 

 margins of the segments beneath ciliated with long pale fulvous 

 hairs. B.M. 



Male. Length 3^-5 lines. — The face clothed with cinereous pubes- 

 cence that is more or less tinted with fulvous, rather paler on the 

 clypeus ; the flagellum rufo-testaceous towards the apex beneath, 

 and .nearly as long as the thorax ; the disk of the thorax has a 

 similar pubescence to the face ; on the sides of the metathorax it is 

 much paler, as is also that on the legs ; the wings as in the other 

 sex ; the tarsi beneath have a golden-yellow pubescence. Abdomen 

 oblong-ovate, convex, slightly shining, very closely and finely punc- 

 tured; the margins of the segments depressed, the intermediate 

 ones having a narrow fringe of pale pubescence, usually more or 

 less interrupted, the extreme apex with glittering golden-yellow 

 hairs. B.M. 



This is a generally distributed species ; its pale pubescence is very 

 subject to becoming bleached, particularly in the males, which are not 

 unfrequently entirely hoary : one in this condition is, in my opinion, 

 described by Kirby as his species M. barbatula; his species M. wilkella 

 is a female of M. xanthura. The bee appears about the middle of 

 April, should the season prove mild, but in some years not before 

 the middle of May. 



Genus 5. CILISSA. 



Andrena (pt.), Fair. Ent. Syst.il 307 (1793). 



Melitta (pt.), Kirby, Mon. Apum Angl. i. 140. t. 3**c. f. 8, 9 (1802). 



Cilissa, Leach, Eclin. Encycl. 9 (1812). 



Kirbya, St.-Farg. Hym. i'i. 145 (1841). 



Anthophora (pt.), Fair. Sijst. Piez. 374 (1804). 



Head transverse, the ocelli placed in a curve on the vertex; the 

 flagellum of the antennae filiform, the apical joint obliquely trun- 

 cate ; the mentum obtuse at the base, and acute in the middle at the 

 apex ; the labial palpi 4-jointed, not quite so long as the labium ; 

 the labium lanceolate, acute at the apex ; the paraglossai minute. 

 The maxillary palpi 6-jointed. The wings as in the genus An- 

 drena (Plate VII. figs. 1,2). 



The economy of the bees belonging to this genus is the same as 

 that of the genus Andrena ; two species are found in England, a 

 third in Sweden, and a fourth in the United States. The species 

 are local, and rarely found in any great abundance. The pubescence 

 on the insects of this genus, when viewed under a microscope of 

 moderate power, is seen to be beautifully plumose. 



