1566 Insects. 



A Supplementary Paper containing descriptions of a few species of 

 Bees recently discovered, or omitted in the descriptions of the 

 Genera to which they belong. By Frederick Smith, Esq. 



This paper will conclude my descriptions of that division of British 

 bees which have the tongue folded and elongate, and which constitute 

 the genus Apis of Kirby. Having arrived at this stage in my de- 

 scription of bees, I trust, that although it will doubtless hereafter be 

 found that I have fallen into some errors, still that I have added some- 

 thing to those materials, with which, united to further discoveries, 

 some future hymenopterist will be enabled to construct a perfect his- 

 tory of the bees of Great Britain. I could have wished that a more 

 able and scientific entomologist had undertaken the task, but having 

 found the investigation of the habits of the Hymenoptera a source of 

 endless enjoyment, I felt that if I were merely to record such observa- 

 tions as I had made upon the history and economy of these interesting 

 creatures, I should be adding something to the general stock, and at 

 the same time might be the means of inducing others to join in the 

 investigation of this most interesting order of insects. Independent 

 of the numerous instances in which I have been able to unite sexes to 

 their legitimate partners, I have been able to add seventeen species to 

 the British list, discovered, but none of them described since the pub- 

 lication of Mr. Kirby's c Monograph/ 



BOMBUS FLAVO-NIGRESCENS, Smith. 



Female, — (Length 9 — 10 lines). Black. The labrum clothed 

 with ferruginous hair. The thorax has a broad band in front, and 

 the scutellum is also clothed with a rich yellow pubescence. Wings 

 fuscous, darkest at their apical margins. The basal joint of the tarsi 

 beneath has the pubescence ferruginous, the terminal joints are ferru- 

 ginous, and the tips of the claws black. Abdomen clothed with a 

 coarse, shaggy pubescence, a lateral patch of which, on the basal seg- 

 ment, is yellow, and on the fourth and fifth it is of a dirty-white. 



Neuter. — Similarly coloured to the female, the yellow bands being 

 generally less bright; it is also subject to the same variety. 



Male. — (Length 5 — 7 lines). Black ; the mandibles fringed with 

 ferruginous hairs ; the thorax has a broad band in front, and the scu- 

 tellum yellow, a narrow yellow band at the base of the abdomen, fre- 

 quently interrupted ; the four terminal segments white, the apical one 

 black in the centre. 



