ursinus, Kirby.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
Πανοῦργος signifies one excessively industrious, at least as it is applied here, although it has other less meritorious meanings, but these insects can scarcely be considered more energetic than any of their associates; perhaps the contrast made between the bright yellow pollen and their lugubrious vestment might give the idea of very active collecting, they being usually, upon returning from their foray, almost entirely disguised in the produce of their excursion. They are rather remarkable insects from their intensely black colour and their compact active forms; their square head and short clavate antennæ give them a sturdy business-like appearance. They also are silent on the wing, but being at the very van of the present subfamily, forming as it were the advanced picket of the Apidæ, it may be considered suitable that they should retain, by way of partial disguise, some of the characteristics of the preceding subfamily. In many respects, therefore, they closely approach Dasypoda: thus their legs are similarly furnished with hair, relatively as long and having the same spiral twist, and their whole habit is that of one of the Andrenidæ, excepting that their clavate antennæ, and the folding of their tongue in repose, separate them from that subfamily. They are local insects, but extremely abundant when fallen upon. I used to find the first species upon an elevated plateau, on the south side over-hanging the Vale of Health and its large pond at Hampstead. Every Dandelion, for a wide circuit in the vicinity, was crowded with individuals—assiduously collecting, in the case of females, but basking in sunny indolence, and revelling in the attractions of the flower, in the case of males, and, at the same time, their burrowing spot, which was not larger than half-a-dozen square yards, was swarming with them, coming and going, burrowing and provisioning. Very numerous, but not so numerous as themselves, were their pretty parasite, the Nomada Fabriciana, fine specimens of both sexes of which I have constantly captured; and a remarkable singularity pertaining to the latter is, that some seasons it would totally fail, and another season present itself sparsely, when, after these lapses, it would recur in all its primitive profusion, although the Panurgus was every season equally present. Both these insects are found during the months of June and July, especially about the middle of the former. In their burrows, which they perforate vertically, they usually enclose about six cells, each being duly provisioned and the egg deposited, when each is separately closed and the orifice of the cylinder filled up. This species is also found in Kent and Surrey, and I have no doubt they might be discovered in most of the southern counties. The smaller species, which is a good deal like a little Tiphia, is remarkable for the peculiarity of the male having a projecting process upon its posterior femora, whence it derives its specific name, calcaratus, which is hardly consistent, as it is not quite the right place for a spur. This smaller species is also found in Kent, Hampshire, and at Weybridge, in Surrey, and in the Isle of Wight. As well as in the Leontodon, it likes to repose in the flowers of the Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium).
b. Cruriferæ (collectors on the shanks and tarsi).
† With two submarginal cells to the wings.
Genus 10. Eucera, Scopoli.
([Plate VI.] fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)
Apis ** d 1, Kirby.
Gen. Char.: Head transverse; vertex concave; ocelli in a curve, and very high up; face flattish; clypeus very convex, hirsute, and fimbriated; labrum transverse-ovate, and emarginate in front; mandibles very obtusely and inconspicuously bidentate; tongue very long and slender, and gradually acuminating, transversely striated; paraglossæ slender, membranous, very acute, and about two-thirds the length of the tongue; labial palpi membranous, and about the length of the paraglossæ, the basal joint linear, broad, longer than the rest united, the second about half its length and acuminate, the two terminal ones are very short and equal, and articulate within the apex of the second joint; labium less than half the length of the tongue, its inosculation concave; maxillæ two-thirds the length of the tongue, subhastate; maxillary palpi six-jointed, short, less than one-third the length of the maxillæ, the basal joint robust, the rest filiform, and gradually decreasing in length and substance. Thorax very pubescent, which conceals its divisions; metathorax truncated; wings with two submarginal cells, the second receiving both the recurrent nervures, one near each of its extremities; legs setose, especially the tibiæ and plantæ, which, in the posterior pair is very dense on the exterior of the tibiæ, and both externally and internally upon the plantæ, the following joints of the posterior tarsi inserted beneath, and within the extremity of their plantæ; the claw-joint being longer than the two preceding, and the claws acutely bifid. Abdomen oval, convex above, subtruncate at the base, where it is thickly pubescent, the other segments glabrous on the disk; the fifth segment fimbriated with decumbent short hair, and the terminal segment having a central triangular plate at the sides of which it is rigidly setose.