2242 Insects. 



short black pubescence; the base has a thin clothing of pale pu- 

 bescence, and on the apical margins (which are piceous) of the 

 second, third and fourth segments, is a fascia of white pubescence, 

 the first generally interrupted ; the apical fimbria sooty black. 



Male. — (Length 6 lines). Black ; the pubescence above is long, 

 and of a pale fulvous, rather darker on the thorax ; beneath it is 

 nearly white ; the face clothed with white pubescence ; the antennae 

 filiform, nigro-piceous beneath, not so long as the head and thorax ; 

 the wings as in the female; the basal joint of the posterior tarsi 

 elongate, clothed beneath with fulvous pubescence ; the calcarise and 

 apical joint of the tarsi testaceous. Abdomen ovate-lanceolate, the 

 apical margins of the segments testaceous ; the second, third, fourth 

 and fifth segments have a fascia of white pubescence, the two first 

 generally interrupted. 



This very elegant insect is rather local. I have taken it at Birch 

 Wood, Paul's Cray, Charlton and Gravesend, Kent ; at Weybridge, 

 Surrey; and at Hawley, Hants. At Southend it occurs in great 

 profusion ; also at Budleigh - Salterton, Devon, as I am informed by 

 Mr. Walcott. Mr. Kirby captured it at Barham, Suffolk ; and Mr. 

 Curtis in the Isle of Wight : so that it is met with in many localities 

 in the West of England, but I have not heard of its having been 

 observed in the North. I have frequently met with the burrow T s 

 which they form in banks of a light sandy soil ; and have dug them 

 out at the beginning of August in their perfect beauty of colouring, 

 which in the male soon fades from a pale orange or fulvous to an 

 uniform gray. This genus appears to form a connecting link between 

 Macropis and Panurgus. Dasypoda usually appears about the be- 

 ginning of August; but this depends in some degree upon the 

 weather, which has considerable influence upon the appearance of 

 all the aculeate Hymenoptera, sometimes retarding their appearance 

 three or four weeks, or causing them to be as much earlier. I 

 have taken the female of Dasypoda as late as the 6th of Sep- 

 tember. 



Frederick Smith. 



5, High Street, Newiugtou, 

 August, 1848. 



