Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/112

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
1278
Insects.

but not closely punctured, all the segments have a white marginal fascia.

This species is much smaller than the rest, which alone would serve to distinguish it ; in general appearance it most closely resem- bles C. succincta, but it wants the rufo-fuscous margin of the first segment of the abdomen ; and it is not so bright and shining, nor are the fasciae white in the female.

This bee I never captured. I have specimens of both sexes taken by Mr. Samuel Stevens at Little Hampton, Sussex, and presented to me by that gentleman. I have compared this species with the speci- men in the Linnean cabinet, and find them identical. The male was not previously known, nor have I seen any specimens excepting my own, and the one referred to.

Sp. 4. Colletes Daviesana.

Melitta Daviesana, Kirby, MSS.

Female. — (Length 4 — 4½ lines). Black, the clypeus thinly clothed with pale fulvous hair, gradually becoming darker towards the vertex ; the thorax thinly clothed with fulvous hair above, beneath with white ; the fringe on the femora, and also the thin pubescence on the tibiae and tarsi similar. Abdomen very smooth and shining, and very finely punctured, the basal segment rather more deeply, but more distantly punctured, the margins of the segments have a pale ochraceous fascia; the first usually more or less obliterated.

Male. — (Length 3½ to 4 lines). Black, the antennae nigro-piceous beneath; the face densely clothed with pale fulvous hair, paler on the clypeus; the thorax above clothed with fulvous, and beneath with white hair ; the abdomen oblong, punctured, the margins of the segments slightly depressed, and having a very pale ochraceous fas- cia ; beneath, the fasciæ do not continue along the margins of the seg- ments, but curve upwards from the lateral margins, not uniting in the centre.

This species I think cannot be confounded with either of the others : its black, glossy abdomen, so delicately punctured as not to be observed without a lens, together with the interrupted fasciæ, will serve to distinguish it.

The males of this genus may perhaps be found most difficult to separate ; that of marginata is usually larger than the others, its abdomen very convex, and its fasciæ the most white and even, with no pubescence between them. The male of fodiens has the abdo-