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

This page needs to be proofread.
1450
Insects.

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.

Sp. 1. Eucera longicornis.

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