114 AVIDM. 



This species appears about the end of April, and was very abun- 

 dant on Hampstead Heath some years ago ; it is also found at 

 Highgate. It is considered by some Hymenopterologists to be a 

 variety of JV. ruficomis. This I believe to be an erroneous opinion : 

 it is very constant in its coloration, the stripes on the disk of the 

 thorax being narrow and always ferruginous, those on the meta- 

 thorax being yellow ; arid the yellow bands on the abdomen are 

 never interrupted. It is said to be parasitic on Andrena smithella 

 in Denmark ; it cannot be so at Hampstead, that species not having 

 occurred there, whilst the Nomada is very plentiful where A. fulva 

 is also abundant. 



4. Nomada lateralis. 



N. atra, thorace rufo obscure quadrilineato ; abdomine rufo, seg- 

 mento secundo macula magna utrinque laterali, reliquis margine 

 postico pallide naveseentibus. 



Nomada lateralis, Panz. Faun. Germ. 96. 20 <3 , 21 $. 



Schaff. Germ. Zeits. i. 277 $ . 



Smith, Zool. ii. 601 ; Bees Great Brit. 120. 



Schench, Nass. Bien. 390. 

 Nomada melanosoma, Sehaff. lib. cit. 280 c? • 



Female. Length 3-4 lines. — Head and thorax black ; the mandibles, 

 labrum, clypeus, and a minute spot above, also a line encircling 

 the eyes, and the antennas red; the latter are longer than the 

 thorax, and have the scape fuscous above. Thorax — the collar, 

 tubercles, a large macula on the breast, the tegulae, and scutellum 

 red ; the mesothorax with four somewhat obscure longitudinal red 

 lines ; the femora, tibiae, and tarsi red ; the posterior tibiae usually 

 more or less black at their apex within, and the femora also usually 

 black at their base beneath, the posterior pair black within, except 

 at their apex ; the coxae and trochanters red at their apex. Abdo- 

 men rufous, the base black, the second segment with a large, sub- 

 ovate yellow macula on each side, the third with usually a lateral 

 yellow macula, the fourth with a transverse subinterrupted fascia, 

 and the fifth with a square yellow macula ; the margins of the 

 ventral segments slightly piceous. 



Male. Length 3f-4| lines. — Head and thorax black ; the labrum 

 and clypeus with silvery white pubescence ; the clypeus anteriorly, 

 the face on each side, and a narrow line at the margin of the eyes 

 as high as the insertion of the antennas, the labrum, and man- 

 dibles yellow, the tips of the latter ferruginous ; the scape yellow 

 in front ; the flagellum rufous, with three or four of the basal joints 

 fuscous above. Thorax above with a thin ochraceous pubescence, 

 that on the sides, the metathorax, and beneath white ; the legs red, 

 the coxae, trochanters, and femora beneath, and also a spot on the 

 tibiae behind black. Abdomen as in the female, but with the spots 

 on the third segment larger ; beneath the segments have a more or 

 less distinct yellow transverse stripe, usually attenuated or inter- 

 rupted in the middle. 



