Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/402

1568 The female of this little bee is very like small specimens of Osmia xanthomelana : the general colour being very similar ; but it has a more rich fulvous pubescence on the thorax, and only scattered hairs on the face, whereas in O. xanthomelana they are dense and black ; neither does it vary in size like its congener, little or no va- riation occurring amongst large numbers which have been captured. The male is easily distinguished by the fringe of hair on the antennae ; the colour of this sex soon fades, its pubescence becoming entirely hoary. Captain Blomer is supposed to have first captured the species, but it was long regarded as a variety of O. xanthomelana ; subsequently Mr. Thwaites captured both sexes, but it was not satis- factorily proved to be distinct until Mr. Walcott captured it in abun- dance, and transmitted to me specimens of both sexes, and pointed out its distinctive characters.

This species appears to be very local ; near Bristol it is plentiful : Mr. Walcott has observed that it appears to confine its visits to the flowers of the common bugle. I captured it in April, at Birch Wood, but only a single specimen or two of the female.

Male.—(Length 3—3½ lines). Black; the antennae have one or two of their apical segments piceous beneath ; the mandibles are fer- ruginous : the face below the antennae clothed with a short, silvery pubescence, as are also the sides of the metathorax. The tegulae pi- ceous. Apical margins of the wings clouded. The anterior femora ferruginous, with a black stain beneath ; the intermediate pair ferru- ginous at their extreme apex ; the anterior tibiae ferruginous, with a dark line above, the intermediate in front and the posterior pair at their apex ferruginous ; tarsi ferruginous, the anterior and intermedi- ate pair stained with black above, the first joint of the posterior pair black. Abdomen entirely black, or with the second segment slightly sufiiised with red ; at the extreme lateral margins of the second and third segments above, and on the margins of all the segments beneath interrupted in the centre, is a short, silvery pubescence.

This insect, in its colouring, forms a perfect contrast to the usually gay coloured species of the genus ; I do not know the female. The specimens which I possess were captured by my friend Mr. S. Ste- vens, at Arundel, in Sussex, to whom I am in this, as well as in other instances, indebted for species either new, or of extreme rarity.