Insects. 1747 



May ; but to secure fine specimens like those described, the insect 

 must be captured as soon as they appear : the pubescence in both 

 sexes soon fades from exposure, the female becoming pale yellow, 

 and the clothing of the male entirely hoary. 



Sp. 36. Andrena Clarkella. 

 Melitta Clarkella, Kirby. Andrena bicolor, St. Fargeau. 



Female. — (Length 5 — 6 J lines). Black; the face clothed with 

 black pubescence. Thorax clothed above with fulvous; the tegulae 

 nigro-piceous; the wings hyaline, their apical margins slightly clouded; 

 the nervures ferruginous ; the pubescence on the legs black ; the four 

 anterior tarsi dark rufo-piceous ; the posterior tibiae and tarsi fulvous ; 

 the floccus sooty -black ; the scopa bright fulvous. Abdomen ovate, 

 clothed with black pubescence. 



Var. 1. — The -abdomen with a few fulvous hairs on the basal 

 segment. 



Var. 2. — The first and second segment clothed with rather pale 

 fulvous hair, and on the third segment fringed with the same. 



Male. — (Length 4j — 5 lines). Black ; the face has a little fulvous 

 pubescence on the clypeus, but at the base of the antennae, and along 

 the inner margins of the eyes it is black. Thorax also clothed 

 with fulvous, paler on the sides and on the metathorax ; the tegulae 

 dark piceous ; the wings hyaline, iridescent, very slightly clouded at 

 their apical margins ; the pubescence on the legs is pale fulvous ; the 

 apex of the posterior tibiae beneath is piceous ; all the tarsi are ferru- 

 ginous beneath. Abdomen ovate-lanceolate ; the extreme apex is 

 pale fulvous. 



1 have retained Mr. Kirby's name for this bee, although St. Far- 

 geau has considered it as synonymous with the A. bicolor of Fabri- 

 cius, but I agree with Mr. Kirby that the A. bicolor of Fabricius is 

 identical with the male of A. thoracica : had Fabricius described the 

 present species, he could hardly have omitted its principal charac- 

 teristic, the pubescent abdomen. This bee is one of the earliest to 

 appear in spring ; I have taken it at the end of March in a fine warm 

 season. I discovered the male, in 1837, by digging both sexes out of 

 a sand-bank at Bishop's Wood, Hampstead ; in 1840 I captured two 

 pairs in copula, the male not being previously known. I have re- 

 ceived the species from Scotland. 



