Insects. 1451 



amusing to watch the males chasing one another with the greatest ra- 

 pidity, while skimming over the surface of the ground in multitudes ; 

 occasionally one will seize another, when both fall to the ground, 

 rolling over and over in a sportive struggle, again they separate and 

 rejoin their sportive companions. The flight of the male is exceed- 

 ingly graceful, it is performed in a series of undulating circumvolutions 

 exceedingly interesting to observe, particularly when large numbers 

 are assembled. 



Genus. — Panurgus, Panzer, St. Fargeau. 



Andrena, Panzer. Trachusa, Jurine. Eriops, Klug. 



Philanthus, Fabricius. Apis, Kirby. 



Antennae sub-clavate in both sexes : mandibles long acute, not den- 

 tate : labial palpi 4-jointed : maxillary palpi 6-jointed : fore-wings 

 with two complete sub-marginal cells. 



Only two British species have been discovered : they are local in- 

 sects, but yet abundant where they occur in July and August. 



Sp. 1. Panurgus ursinus. 



Apis ursinus, Gmelin (Systema Naturae, p. 2790), Kirby, male. 



Apis Banksiana, Kirby, female. 



Female. — Length 5 J lines. Black, shining; head with a black pu- 

 bescence, the antennae dark piceous, nearly black ; tips of the mandi- 

 bles piceous ; thorax, the tegulae piceous; the wings slightly fuscous, 

 darkest at their margins, all the tibia and tarsi clothed with fulvous 

 hair, the posterior pair densely so, the calcaria fulvous, the tip of the 

 abdomen tufted with brown hair. 



Male. — Length 5 lines. Black ; shining, with a thin scattered 

 black pubescence ; wings as in the female ; the tibiae and tarsi have a 

 thin fulvous pubescence, the calcaria and apical joints of the tarsi ful- 

 vous, the margins of the abdominal segments depressed, the apex 

 bilobed. 



Panurgus ursinus appears to be much more generally distributed 

 than the smaller species, P. calcaratus ; on Hampstead-heath it is 

 very plentiful in July. I have generally met with it on heaths. 



