88 ' 
[July 
Thorax above and on the sides tawny-yellow. Wings subhyaline, more 
or less embrowned. Legs black; femora beneath clothed with long 
yellowish hairs. Abdomen with the first segment above yellowish ; 
anterior part of the second segment in the middle yellowish or yellow¬ 
ish-brown ; remaining segments black. Beneath black, more or less 
mixed with yellow. Length 7—9 lines. 
A very common species. Fifty (18 9 ,24 ^ , 8 S ) specimens examined. 
Can., Conn., N. Y., Del., Pa., D.C., Ill., Mo., Miss., Tex. (Coll. Ent. 
Soc. Phila., and Mr. E. Norton.) 
I have with some doubts placed De Geer’s Apis griseo-collis as a 
synonym of this species. De Geer says:—“ The Bees of this species, 
which are of a medium size and very hairy, although less upon the ab¬ 
domen than elsewhere, have been found in Pennsylvania by M. Acre- 
lius, where they make their nests in the ground. I have only the 
workers and the males. Their color is black, but the thorax and a 
part of the anterior portion of the abdomen are entirely covered with 
hairs of a yellowish-gray, or olive color. The wings are brown and 
shining, and the eyes of a dusky brown. The male is large, with large 
eyes which cover almost the whole of the head, as is usual in all the 
male Bees. The upper lip is yellow, and the black color of the abdo¬ 
men and of the legs is shining, and approaches somewhat a deep blue. 
The working Bee, which is of the usual form of the Humble-Bees, is 
much smaller than the male; its upper lip is black like the rest of the 
head, and the black color of the abdomen and of the legs has no blue 
shade.” The figure given by De Geer, of his species, represents the 
abdomen as being entirely black. Olivier seems to have seen De Geer’s 
species, and thinks it distinct from his Apis Virginica, previously de¬ 
scribed. ' Therefore, if griseo-collis and Virginicus should prove to be 
the same species, which is quite probable, then the former name must, 
according to priority, take precedence. 
In defence of the synonomy of B. Virginicus^ given above, I have to 
say, that the briefness of the Linnean and Fabrician descriptions of Apis 
Virginica are such, that it is impossible to say, with any degree of cer¬ 
tainty, whether they refer to our common Bombus Virginicus or Xylo- 
copa Virginica^ both species having the thorax and basal segment of 
the abdomen yellowish. In 1770, Drury described and figured (Illust. 
Ins. I, p. 96, pi. 43, fig. I) a species, without name, which, according 
