Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/284

1450 Only one species of this genus has been discovered in this country, the Apis longicomis of Linnæus. There are four enumerated in the British lists ; Apis linguaria of Kirby is a small, long-disclosed spe- cimen of Eucera longicornis ; of this I have satisfied myself beyond a doubt, having visited an extensive colony on many occasions for some years. I have found the males differ considerably in size, and the original colour of the pubescence, a rich fulvous brown, changes gra- dually by exposure to cinereous or gray. The third Kirbyan species, A. poUinaris, a female, is a well-known North- American insect; the specimen which Mr. Kirby described is still in the Banksian cabinet. The fourth species, A. Druriella of Kirby, is also a foreign insect; I have seen it in several collections, but do not know its precise locality.

Female. — Length 6½–7½ lines. Black ; the face clothed with short pale fulvous hair, and the labrum with fulvous ; antennae not so long as the head and thorax ; the thorax densely clothed above with a rich fulvous pubescence, on the sides and beneath it becomes a very pale yellow ; the tegulae ferruginous ; the apical margins of the wings tinged with brown, the nervures ferruginous ; all the legs above have a ful- vous pubescence ; the posterior tibiae and first joint of the tarsi have a bright fulvous pubescence ; the calcaria testaceous, tarsi beneath ferruginous, the claws rufous, tipped with black ; abdomen broad, closely and minutely punctured, the basal segment thinly clothed with pale fulvous hair, the second and third at the extreme lateral margin, and the fourth entirely clothed with a silvery white pubes- cence, the fifth with fulvous, and the sixth with ferruginous hair, with a bare patch in the centre ; beneath, one or two of the apical segments have a marginal fringe of pale fulvous hair.

Male. — Length 6 — 7 lines. Black ; clypeus and labrum yellow, the face has a fulvous pubescence ; the antennae as long as the entire in- sect ; the thorax fulvous above ; the legs have also a fulvous pubes- cence, as well as the two first segments of the abdomen, the third and fourth have a short thin black pubescence, the apical segments fulvous.

Eucera longicornis is a local, but extremely abundant insect in some situations. It forms its burrows about six or eight inches deep in a stiff clayey soil, and the larva spins a brown tough cocoon ; in some cells I have found its parasite the Nomada sexfasciata ; the per- fect insect appears usually about the last week in May. It is very