These insects are extremely handsome, their ground-colour being intensely black, brightly shining on the abdomen, upon the segments of which it is laterally ornamented with silvery pubescent tufts and spots; the black legs are also variously ringed with similar silver down. The great variation these spots and markings undergo—from what cause we know not—has induced several entomologists to consider them as distinct species. But the strongest varieties so rarely recur with identical ornaments, and as almost all can be closely connected together in a regular series by interlacing differences impossible to divide, it would be certainly incorrect, without stronger characteristics, to raise such fugitive variations to specific rank. Whether the curious spines of the scutellum which they possess furnish a more certain character is doubtful, for we find all such processes equally liable to variation in size and form. What can be the uses of these spines? They can hardly be for defence, although an entomologist has said that a male which he held endeavoured to pinch by that means. We find similar processes in the same situation in Cœlioxys, equally a parasitical genus; but the former genus infests the Scopulipedes and the latter the Dasygasters, whose economies are so very different, and thus it can hardly be supposed to have reference to habits. In Epeolus and Stelis the same part is mucronated, a tendency to which we see in the Nomadæ with subclavate antennæ. Under Anthophora I have given an account of the pugnacious spirit of these insects in their contests with the sitos, and it is necessary to be cautious in handling them, as they sting very severely. Our two native species are parasitical upon the two species of the first division of Anthophora,—those which are gregarious. The circumstance of Melecta being often caught with many of the extremely young larvæ of Meloë upon it seems to confirm the fact of this coleopterous insect preying upon Anthophora, as it may be thus assumed to prey simultaneously upon the larva of Melecta. I have never captured these insects upon flowers, nor can I trace what flowers they frequent, although Latreille tells us, in the name he has imposed, that they are honey collectors; but Curtis reports that he has found the genus upon the common furze or whin (Ulex Europæus).
Genus 16. Epeolus, Latreille.
([Plate XI.] fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)
Apis ** b, Kirby.
Gen. Char.: Body glabrous. Head transverse, vertex convex; ocelli placed in a triangle on its summit; antennæ short, linear, the joints of the flagellum subequal; face flat, carinated longitudinally in its centre between the insertion of the antennæ; clypeus transverse, lunulate, convex, margined anteriorly; labrum transversely ovate, with a small process in the centre in front; mandibles bidentate, the internal tooth minute, the external robust and broad; tongue rather long, more than twice the length of the labium, tapering to its extremity; paraglossæ short, about one-fourth the length of the tongue, broad at the base, and acuminate towards the apex; labial palpi more than half the length of the tongue, the basal joint longer than the three following, membranous, and gradually decreasing to the second, which is one-third the length of the first, and acute at its apex, where the third subclavate joint is articulated, the terminal joint considerably shorter than the third; labium not more than one-third the length of the tongue, and trifid at its inosculation, the central division being hastate; maxillæ subhastate, more than one-half the length of the tongue; maxillary palpi consisting of one robust short conical joint inserted in a deep circular receptacle. Thorax subglobose; prothorax conspicuous, with its lateral angles slightly prominent; mesothorax with its bosses prominent; wing-scales large; scutellum transverse, gibbous, margined posteriorly, slightly mucronated laterally, slightly depressed in the centre, and impending over the post-scutellum, which is inapparent; metathorax abruptly truncated; wings with three submarginal cells, and a fourth feebly commenced, the first as long as the two following, the second subtriangular, and receiving the first recurrent nervure about its centre, and the third lunulate, and receiving the second recurrent nervure also about the centre; legs short, stout, the tibiæ slightly spinulose externally; claws very small, short, robust and simple. Abdomen obtusely conical, truncated at the base, its terminal segment triangular, and the lateral margins slightly reflected.
The MALE scarcely differs, excepting in the usual male characteristics, and that the apical segment of the abdomen is rounded and margined.
NATIVE SPECIES.
1. variegatus, Linnæus, ♂ ♀. 3-4 lines. ([Plate XI.] fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)
variegatus, Kirby.