Title: British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser
Identifier: britishbeejourna1898lond (find matches)
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Bees
Publisher: London
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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May 19, 1898.) THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 197 business took place, and gathered up a fair quantity of the bees and took them home at once.—A. B. B , May 6. OUR WILD BEES. (Concluded from page 188.) (3274.) Andrena nitida is a large and fine species; the face is clothed with white hair, the thorax densely with bright fulvous hair, abdomen shining black, very sparingly clothed with white hair, which is more conspicuous in the $ ; on the underside the hair is white in both sexes. In the ? the posterior tibiae are clothed with black hairs above, greyish below, and the fringe at the apex of the abdomen is almost black. Length 12-14 mm. Common on dandelions, &c, in many places during April. Andrena thoracica differs from A. nitida in having the hairs on the face, abdomen and underside black, not white. Common in some places, but I have taken only one male at Ripple so far. Andrena Wilhella and A. Afzeliella are two rather small species which are closely allied to one another. On the head and thorax the hairs are short and pale brown in colour, turning to white in worm specimens; the abdomen is shining, all the segments except the basal one with apical bands of white pubiscence, those on the second and. third segments interrupted in the middle ; legs clothed with pale hairs; in the ? the posterior tibise and tarsi are testaceous, the scopae being pale golden, the fringe at the apex of the abdomen being also pale golden. Length 9-11 mm. Common throughout spring and summer; often stylopizied. In A. Wilkella the $ has the wings yellowish and the $ has the antennae longer than in A Afzeliella. I generally take A. Afzeliella commonly up to the end of September, when it occurs on marjoram and late red-ciover. The most common and in many ways, perhaps, the most interesting genus of our inquiline bees, namely, Nomada, is now likely to throw some of its representatives before the collector's eye. In general outward appearance it is scarcely possible to imagine insects more dissimilar to ordinary bees than the Nomadce are. No doubt they have been taken re- peatedly for small wasps by those who are not well acquainted with them. To enable the reader to recognise these bees I give below a sketch of a common species, N. succincta, which may be regarded as a fair type of the genus. A glance, however, at the mouth parts 1 (which may require extracting with a needle) will at once settle any doubtful capture, as a bee's tongue is unmistakable, and in the Nomada it approaches the very distinct form characteristic of the family Apidm (see fig. 2, page 87). The true wasps (Diploptera) may be known from Nomadce and, in fact, from all other insects by the fact that the fore wings have a longitudinal crease or fold when they are in a position of rest. The word " Nomada," which signifies a wanderer, is a good name for these bees, on account of the cuckoo sort of life they lead, searching for the nests of other bees in which to deposit their eggs. The females, therefore, are unprovided with any pollen-carrying apparatus. It was once thought that most of our species of Nomada were parasitic on the Halicti, but it has now been proved that they associate chiefly with Andrence, each species of Nomada limiting its attacks to one or to one or two species of Andrena, and there are reasons for believing that the genus Nomada is closely re- lated to Andrena. There are, however, several well-known exceptions to this general rule. Nomada sexfasciata, one of the largest of our British species, associate with Eucera longi' comis, and I have myself taken a minute species of Nomada around the burrows of a small Halictus in the Himalayas. In the genus Nomada the second joint of the antennae is exceedingly short; in the male it is often scarcely discernible. In making out the species too much reliance must not be placed on the yellow and red markings, which may vary considerably in individual examples of the same species. The most important specific characters lie in the shape and colour- ing of the face and antennas, and in the shape of the spines at the apex of the posterior tibiae. There are four species of Nomada that are common in the spring. These are N. ruficornis, N. alternata, N. succincta, and N. Fabriciana. Nomada ruficornis.—The ? of this species has the head and thorax black, with ferrugi- nous red markings, which on the mesonotum of the thorax take the shape of four longitu- dinal stripes ; the abdomen is red-brown, each segment, except the basal one, having a pale yellow spot on either side, the spots becoming more or less confluent, especially towards the apex of the abdomen. The $ differs in having the mesonotum entirely black, and the pale yellow markings on the abdomen form broadish bands. Length, 8 to 12 mm. Common on grassy banks, and flying around ornamental shrubs in gardens, &c, in the end of April and beginning
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Pig. 6.—Nomada Succincta <J. Black and yellow, legs and apex of antennrc pale orange. of May. Associates with Andrena fulva and other species of Andrena. N. alternata and N. succincta. In both these species the abdomen is black with pale yellow bands. In alternata the bands are

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