692 Insects. 



Sp. 2. Megachile maritima. 

 Apis lagopoda, Linn. ? Apis maritima, Kirby's Mon. 



Female. — Length 7 lines. Black. The face with a patch of yel- 

 low ferruginous hair close to the eyes, below the base of the antennae ; 

 the vertex with thinly scattered black hairs ; the cheeks thinly cover- 

 ed with pale fulvous hair. The mandibles large and prominent, with 

 obtuse rounded teeth. The thorax also clothed with pale fulvous pu- 

 bescence, rather darker on the vertex. All the tarsi ferruginous be- 

 neath. The abdomen is oblong-ovate, the basal segments above have 

 a thinly scattered pale fulvous pubescence, all the segments are mar- 

 gined with hair of the same colour ; beneath, entirely clothed with 

 fulvous hair, rather darkest towards the apex. 



Male. — Length 6^ lines. Black. The face clothed with rich yel- 

 low hairs ; antennae with the apical segment compressed, and, viewed 

 hi front, broader than the rest. The thorax is thinly clothed with pale 

 fulvous hair above, beneath inclining to an ashy colour. The ante- 

 terior legs have their coxae armed with an obtuse tooth, which has a 

 minute spine at the apex ; femora pale livid in front, a dark ferrugi- 

 nous stripe above, another below, and a broader one between them, 

 black behind at the apex, and fringed below with a long ashy pubes- 

 cence ; the tibiae pale in front, black behind, and pale at the apex ; 

 the tarsi pale, palmated, and fringed with pale hairs ; the posterior 

 tibiae broadly dilated and coarsely punctured. The abdomen oblong- 

 quadrate, the margins of all the segments have a fascia of pale fulvous 

 hairs, sometimes interrupted, the sixth segment is emarginate, and the 

 seventh bidentate, and in some specimens there is a slight indication 

 of a central tooth, the third and fourth segments beneath are fringed 

 with long pale hairs. 



The male of this species I have carefully compared with the Lin- 

 naean specimen of Apis lagopoda, and can detect no difference 

 whatever between them. Mr. Kirby, however, informs us, that the 

 antennae of Apis lagopoda are filiform. Unfortunately, the Linnaean 

 specimen is now destitute of these organs ; but the insect, if viewed 

 from above, would not show the broader joint of the antennae, and 

 Mr. Kirby might not have viewed it in front. Be that as it may, the 

 Linnaean insect agrees in every other particular with the one describ- 

 ed ; and I have examined European specimens named lagopoda, and 

 in all, the apical joint is compressed ; nor have I been able to find a 

 species with the anterior tarsi palmated, which has not also the com- 

 pressed joint of the antennae. 



