16. BOMBUS. 199 



in nests of Bombus muscorum, and Anobium paniceum I have ob- 

 served in plenty in the same nests. Probably the greatest con- 

 sumers of the wax is a species of Acarus ; these sometimes infest the 

 bodies of the bees themselves in such numbers as to render them 

 incapable of flight. The bee -parasites belonging to the genus 

 Apathus are not uncommon in the nests of some species ; their para- 

 sitism is treated upon in the observations on that genus. 



Section I. Surface-builders. 



1. Bombus muscorum. 



B. hirsuto flavescens, thorace fulvo, abdomine plus minusve atro 

 fasciato. 



Bombus muscorum, Latr. Hist. Nat. des Crust, et Ins. xiv. 65. 



Dalilb. Bomb. Scand. 46, tab. fig. 17 § var. 



Brews. # Schiodte, Kroy. Tidsskr. ii. 107 (1838). 



Nylcmd. Notis. ur Sallsk. pro Faun, et Flo. Fenn. i. 227. 



S??iith, Bees Great Brit. 212 ; Entomol. iii. 267. 



Gerst. Stett. ent. Zeit. (1869) 320. 



Thorns. Hym. Scand. ii. 28. 

 Apis muscorum, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 960 2 > & Gab. Mus. Linn. Soc. 



Schrank, Ins. Austr. 397. 



Bossi, Faun. Fntrus. ii. 100. 

 Apis floralis, Kirby, Mon. Apum Angl. ii. 321 £ $ , tab. 17. fig. 14 tf . 

 Apis beckwithella, Kirby, lib. cit. ii. 323 $ 2 1 var - j3 $ . 

 Apis fxancillonella, Kirby, lib. cit. ii. 319 $ . 

 Apis forsterella, Kirby, lib. cit. ii. 32-5 $ minor. 

 Apis sowerbiana, Kirby, lib. cit. ii. 322 $ . 

 Apis curtisella, Kirby, lib. cit. ii. 324 c? . 

 Bombus senilis, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 352 $ (teste Nyland.). 

 Bombus pyguiseus, Fabr. lib. cit. 353 £ (teste Nyland.). 



Female. Length 6-7 lines. — Black ; the face with a thin pale fulvous 

 pubescence; the ciypeus shining and naked, and on the vertex a 

 few black hairs. The thorax clothed above with rufo-fulvous pu- 

 bescence, on the sides and beneath it is cinereous ; the femora 

 fringed with cinereous pubescence, that on the tibiae and tarsi black, 

 on the latter more or less rufo-fuscous ; the basal joint of the pos- 

 terior tarsi and the apical portion of the two anterior pairs with 

 ferruginous pubescence beneath ; the fringe of the posterior tibiae 

 sometimes intermixed with pale hairs. Abdomen subtriangular, 

 its pubescence pale fulvous ; the first segment has laterally a tuft of 

 paler pubescence ; on the third segment a band of black pubes- 

 cence, varying in width in different specimens. (A. floralis, Kirby.) 



B.M. 



Yar. /3. The first segment of the abdomen with pale pubescence, a. 

 broad band of black occupies the second and the greater part of the 

 third, on the rest it is rufo-fulvous. (A. beckwithella, Kirby.) B.M. 



Worker. Length 3-6 lines. — Closely resembling the female, the 



