Chapter X · THE SCIENTIFIC ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF THE GENERA, WITH LISTS OF OUR NATIVE SPECIES AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE HABITS AND ECONOMY OF THE INSECTS, WITH INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS SUGGESTED BY THE SUBJECT. (continued 2)

The MALE scarcely differs, excepting in the clypeus being less gibbous, the legs not plumose, and the sixth segment of the abdomen carinated in the centre towards its extremity, and impending over the seventh, which is transversely gibbous, then depressed, and with an obtuse process at its extremity.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. cærulea, Villers, ♂ ♀. 2-3 lines. (Plate VII. fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)

cyanea, Kirby.

2. albilabris, Fabricius, ♂ ♀. 2½ lines.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

This genus is named from the presence of a little 247horn between its antennæ, κερατίνη, a horn. Some foreign entomologists, especially Latreille and Le Pelletier de St. Fargeau, have considered it to be parasitical, but that it is not so we have the authority of the Marquis Spinola, of Genoa, confirmed by the testimony of Mr. Thwaites, a very accurate observer, in the vicinity of Bristol, where the insect is not at all uncommon, although extremely rare in most other parts, and consequently usually a desideratum to cabinets, from its great beauty both of form and colour, notwithstanding that it is so very small in size. It has also been found in other localities, as at Birchwood, where the late Mr. Bambridge used to take it, and as near London as Charlton, at both which places I have no doubt it might frequently be found were it carefully looked for, but the practised entomological eye is often wanting to detect an insect unless it be conspicuously present. Its usual nidus is a bramble or briar stick, from which it excavates the pith, and this it has been frequently observed doing, and both sexes have been repeatedly bred from such sticks. We have no notice of any peculiarity in its mode of forming its cells, which may resemble that of such wood-boring genera as Chelostoma and Heriades, although its structure would intimate a closer affinity to the habits of the exotic genus Xylocopa; nor is there extant any account of the process or time occupied in the development of its young. Spinola’s notion, from not seeing the sufficiency of the hair upon the posterior tibiæ for the purpose, assumed that the pollen was conveyed home on the forehead and between the antennæ, he having caught an insect with some pollen accidentally incrusted there in the insect’s honey-seeking excursion. The hair upon these legs is very sparse, it is true, but then it 248is very long, and the quantity of pollen required for the nurture of the larva is evidently small, from its having been observed that the store upon which the egg is deposited is semi-liquid, thus preponderating in the admixture of honey.

That it has not been caught laden with pollen upon its legs has no weight against the fact of its non-parasitism, for it is not always that the excursions of bees are made for the purpose of collecting pollen. Honey is as necessary to their economy—and in this case perhaps more so—as pollen, and the only way to determine the fact of its carrying pollen, corroboratively, would be when knowing that one of these bees has visited a bramble stick—its presumptive nidus,—to watch the stick very patiently for the insect’s return from every journey until it came back laden; the presence of pollen upon its legs would surely be indicated by the difference of its colour from the ordinary dark hue of the little labourer.

We have already noticed bees with metallic hues among the Halicti, and there are slight indications of it in some of the Andrenæ, for instance, in the A. cinerea and the A. nigro-ænea, etc., but in none hitherto so absolutely is it exhibited as in this genus. The prevalent colour of the bees, that is to say, the ground colour of the integument, and not the fleeting one of the pubescence, is black or brown, but here we have a positive metallic tinge, which we shall again come across in many shades and hues in the genus Osmia.

A second species of the genus was brought from Devonshire by Dr. Leach, and is in the collection of the British Museum, but no other specimens of the same species have since been found.

249The only flower which it has been noticed that they frequent is the Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare).

Subsection 2. Nudipedes (naked-legged cuckoo-bees).

a. With three submarginal cells to the wings.

Genus 14. Nomada, Fabricius.

(Plates VIII., IX., X.)

Gen. Char.: Head transverse; ocelli in a triangle on the vertex; antennæ filiform, scarcely geniculated, the scape short, the basal joint of the flagellum subglobose, the second joint clavate, the remainder subequal; face flat, or slightly concave, carinated longitudinally in the centre between the insertion of the antennæ; clypeus subtriangular, convex, deflected at the lateral angles; labrum subcircular, very gibbous and protuberant; mandibles acute or subbidentate; tongue long, acute; paraglossæ about one-fourth its length, acute; labial palpi two-thirds the length of the tongue, the two basal joints membranous, the basal one as long as the rest united, and tapering to its extremity, the second joint less than half the length of the first, and not wider at its base than the apex of the first joint, and tapering like that to its end, where it is acute, the third joint short, subclavate, and the terminal one-half the length of the preceding, very slender and linear; labium about one-half the length of the tongue, and at its inosculation produced obtusely in the centre; maxillæ subhastate, about the length of the tongue; maxillary palpi six-jointed, the basal joint short, robust, subclavate, the second the longest, and with the rest tapering in substance and diminishing in length to the extremity, the 250terminal joint being very little shorter than the preceding. Thorax ovate; prothorax inconspicuous, or distinct and angulated laterally; mesothorax glabrous, deeply punctulated; its bosses conspicuous and prominent; scutellum divided into two very prominent tubercles; post-scutellum linear, convex; metathorax with a triangular space at its base, and declining to the insertion of the abdomen; wings with three submarginal cells, and a fourth very slightly commenced, the first as long as the two following, and each of which receives a recurrent nervure about its centre; legs subspinose externally on the tibiæ, and not polliniferous; claws of tarsi small and not bifid. Abdomen oval, glabrous, shining; terminal segment triangular, with its sides ridged.

The MALE scarcely differs, excepting in sometimes being more profusely adorned with colour, but this is not always the case, the female being often the most ornate. There are very slight differences in the antennæ in the sexes, which may be readily associated together.

NATIVE SPECIES.

§ With filiform antennæ.

1. sexfasciata, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 5-6 lines. (Plate VIII. fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)

Schæfferella, Kirby.

connexa, Kirby.

2. Goodemana, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 4-5 lines. (Plate VIII. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

? succincta, Panzer.

3. alternata, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 4-5 lines.

Marshamella, Kirby.

4. Lathburiana, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 4-5½ lines. (Plate VIII.fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)

2515. varia, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 4-4½ lines.

varia, Kirby.

fucata, Kirby.

6. ruficornis, Linnæus, ♂ ♀.

ruficornis, Kirby.

leucophthalma, Kirby.

flava, Kirby.

7. lateralis, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 4-4½ lines. (Plate X. fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)

8. ochrostoma, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 4-4½ lines. Hillana, Kirby.

9. signata, Jurine, ♂ ♀. 4-5 lines. (Plate IX. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

10. borealis, Zetterstedt, ♂ ♀. 3½-5 lines.

11. lineola, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 4-6 lines.

cornigera, Kirby.

subcornuta, Kirby.

Capreæ, Kirby.

sexcincta, Kirby.

12. xanthosticta, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 2-2¾ lines.

13. flavoguttata, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 2-3 lines. (Plate IX. fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)

14. furva, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 2-2½ lines.

rufocincta, Kirby.

Sheppardana, Kirby.

Dalii, Curtis.

15. Germanica, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 4 lines.

ferruginata, Kirby.

16. Fabriciana, Linnæus, ♂ ♀. 3½-5 lines. (Plate IX. fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)

Fabriciella, Kirby.

quadrinotata, Kirby.

17. armata, Schaeffer, ♂ ♀. 5-5½ lines.

252Kirbii, Stephens.

§§ With subclavate antennæ.

18. Jacobeæ, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 4-4½ lines. (Plate X. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

Jacobeæ, Kirby.

flavopicta, Kirby.

19. Solidaginis, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 3½-4 lines. (Plate X. fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)

picta, Kirby.

rufopicta, Kirby.

20. Roberjeotiana, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 3 lines.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

This genus was named by Fabricius from the Nomades, a pastoral Scythian tribe, in allusion to the assumed wandering habits of the insects, and it is the fact indeed that they are usually found leisurely hovering about hedge-rows, or the banks enclosing fields, or about the metropolis or nidus of any bee upon which they are parasitical. They are the gayest of all our bees, their colours being red or yellow intermixed with black, in bands or spots; they are also very elegant in form, which is after the type of that of the most normal Andrenidæ, and to which they have a further affinity by the silence of their flight, and by their parasitism upon many of the species of that subfamily. From their very general resemblance to wasps in colour they are often mistaken for wasps, and are popularly called wasp-bees, although they have none of the virulence of that vindictive tribe, for although all the females are armed with stings, they are not prompt in their use, or if roused to defence the puncture is but slight. In addition 253to their prettiness of colour and elegance of form, they have a further attraction in the agreeable odours they emit, sometimes of a balmy or balsamical, and sometimes of a mixed character, and often as sweet as the pot-pourri, and occasionally pleasantly pungent. A fine string of specimens of the several species is a great ornament to a collection, but to secure this in its perfection some care is required in the mode of killing them. Their colours are best permanently retained by suffocating them with sulphur, which fixes the reds and yellows in all their natural and living purity. My method was in my collecting excursions to convey with me a large store of pill-boxes of various sizes, and as I captured insects in my green gauze bag-net, I transferred them separately to these boxes. When home again I lifted the lids slightly on one side and placed as many as would readily go beneath a tumbler, and then fumigated them with the sulphur. This is a better plan than killing them with crushed laurel-leaves, for it leaves the limbs much longer flexible for the purposes of setting, whereas the laurel has a tendency to make them rigid, and this rigidity is extremely difficult to relax, whereas the setting of those killed with sulphur, if they are kept in a cool place, may be deferred for a few days, until leisure intervene to permit it, and even then if they become stiffened they are readily relaxed for the purpose.

A division might very consistently be established in the genus by the separation of those which have subclavate antennæ, and the segments of whose abdomen are slightly constricted; these also are more essentially midsummer insects, and usually frequent the Ragwort. This is the only genus of parasites amongst the true 254bees whose parasitism is directed exclusively upwards in the scientific arrangement; the parasitism of all the rest of the genera of Nudipedes bears upon the genera below them in the series. Some of the species of the Nomadæ attack more than one species or one genus, but the majority are strictly limited to but one genus and one species. The genera obnoxious to this annoyance are Andrena, Halictus, Panurgus, and Eucera; the latter two have but one of these enemies each, the Nomada Fabriciana infesting the Panurgus Banksianus, and the N. sexfasciata frequenting the Eucera longicornis. Under Panurgus I have alluded to the relative abundance of the parasite at the metropolis of its sitos. As far as known, the other species are thus distributed. Those frequenting several indifferently are the Nomada alternata, Lathburiana, succincta, and ruficornis, which are found to infest Andrena Trimmerana, tibialis, Afzeliella, and fulva, without displaying any choice; whereas others confine themselves to one sitos exclusively: thus Nomada ochrostoma limits itself to Andrena labialis; N. Germanica to A. fulvescens; N. lateralis to A. longipes; N. baccata to A. argentata; N. borealis to A. Clarkella; N. Fabriciana to Panurgus Banksianus; and N. sexfasciata to Eucera longicornis. Observation has not yet fully determined whither each species of Nomada conveys its parasitism; several infest the Halicti, especially the smaller species; the association of these it is difficult to determine; I have usually found several of the small Halicti burrowing together in the vertical surface of an enclosure bank, and several of the small Nomada hovering cautiously opposite, now alighting and entering a burrow, then retreating backwards and winging off. I lost patience in endeavouring to combine the 255species by the aid of blades of grass or slight straws thrust into the aperture, but the crumbling nature of the soil frustrated my wishes, and I abandoned the attempt. This field of observation is widely open to the exertions of observing naturalists, and the novelty of their discoveries would well reward the toil of the undertaking, for it would not be long before they gathered fruit.

Genus 15. Melecta, Latreille.

(Plate XI. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

Apis ** a, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Head transverse, scarcely so wide as the thorax; ocelli in a triangle on the vertex; antennæ filiform, rather robust, and but slightly geniculated, the scape not longer than the two following joints, the second joint of the flagellum the longest and clavate, the rest short, nearly equal, and the terminal one laterally compressed at its extremity; face flat, very pubescent; clypeus short transverse, lunulate, convex; labrum irregularly gibbous, obovate; mandibles strongly bidentate; tongue long, slightly expanding towards the middle and thence tapering to the extremity, and with a central line; paraglossæ scarcely half the length of the tongue, almost setiform, but robust at the base; labial palpi more than half the length of the tongue, the two first joints membranous and very slender, the first longer than the rest united, the second about half the length of the first, and terminating acutely, the third not more than one-fourth the length of the second, and inserted laterally before its termination, the fourth about as long 256as the third, and, like it, subclavate, both being more robust than the second; labium not half the length of the tongue, and acutely triangular at its inosculation; maxillæ subhastate, not quite so long as the tongue; maxillary palpi five-jointed, about one-third the length of the maxillæ, the basal joint clavate, short, and robust; the second elongate, subclavate, the remainder gradually but slightly diminishing in substance and length, the terminal not so long as the basal joint. Thorax very retuse, and its divisions scarcely distinguishable; scutellum bidentate; metathorax abruptly truncated; wings with three closed submarginal cells, the second the smallest, irregularly triangular, and receiving the first recurrent nervure just beyond its centre, the third submarginal considerably larger than the second, sublunulate, but angulated externally and receiving the second recurrent nervure about its centre; the legs robust and spinulose, especially the tibiæ externally (where they are very convex) and the femora beneath; the claws short, strong and bifid. The Abdomen conical, truncated, and retuse at its base, the apical segment with a central triangular plate ridged laterally, and fimbriated at its sides with strong setæ.

The MALE scarcely differs in personal appearance, excepting that its antennæ are more robust and its ornamental pubescence is more profuse, its posterior tibiæ very robust and almost triangular, and the terminal segment of its abdomen slightly emarginate and concave at its extremity.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. punctata, Fabricius, ♂ ♀. 6 lines. (Plate XI. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

257? Atropos, Newman.

? Lachesis, Newman.

2. armata, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 6-7 lines.

punctata, Kirby.

? Tisiphone, Newman.

? Alecto, Newman.

? Clotho, Newman.

? Megæra, Newman.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Named from μέλι, honey, λέγω, I collect; which is scarcely the case, for the parasites, although they may indulge in the luxury of honey as epicures, or resort to it as a repast, cannot be said to collect it, for it is only the labouring bees that truly collect it for the purpose of storing.

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 258form. 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 259convex; 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 260second 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.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

It is difficult to assign a reason for the name of this genus, or to trace an applicable derivation from ἐπίαλος, for the insect in no way suits, either directly or by anti-phrase, any of the significations of this word. It is one of the prettiest of our little bees, and is parasitical upon the Colletes Daviesiana, and it may be found in abundance wherever the metropolis of this species occurs. There is one special locality near Bexley, in Kent, a vertical sandbank within a few hundred yards of the village, where I have always found it in the spring months, and have there taken it as numerously as I wished. I have already alluded, in another part of this work, to the uniformly greater beauty of the parasitical bees, to those which they infest, and their exceedingly different appearance in every case excepting in that of the genus Apathus. We might have expected that they would have been disguised like these, the better to carry on their nefarious practices, but what can well be more dissimilar than Epeolus and Colletes, or than Nomada and all its 261supporters, and the same of Melecta, Cœlioxys, and Stelis. These facts puzzle investigation for a reason; nor will the perplexity be speedily solved. All that we can surmise is that there must be a motive for it, for wherever we successfully elicit her secret from the veiled goddess, we invariably find the reason founded in profound wisdom. In some cases the mystery seems devised to test our sagacity, but it cannot be so here, for the most palpable and plausible cause that would suggest itself in the supposition of its being for the guardianship and apprisal of the sitos is often contravened, as in this instance, by it and its parasite living in great harmony together, again by the desertion of its nidus by Eucera in favour of the parasite, although itself is a very much more powerful insect; but in the cases of Panurgus, Halictus, and Andrena, they all live well reconciled to the intrusion of the stranger’s young, and this, without their enumeration, may be adopted as nearly the universal case. The hostility of Anthophora, previously noticed, is an almost insulated case of the contrary. The form of these insects does not promise much activity, and we accordingly find that they are slow, heavy, and indolent; yet they must be cautiously handled, for they sting acutely; but indeed it is not well ever to handle insects whose markings, as we find them in these, consist of a close nap, as evanescent as the down upon a plum, and of course the fingers carry it readily off, and disfigure the beauty of the little specimen. When their special habitat is not known they may often be found upon the blossoming Ragwort in the vicinity, or upon the Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium murorum) within whose flowers they are frequently observed enjoying their siesta.

262b. With two submarginal cells.

Genus 17. Stelis, Panzer.

(Plate XI. fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)

Apis ** c, 1 β, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Body glabrous, much punctured. Head transverse, curving posteriorly to the thorax, where it is angulated laterally; ocelli in a triangle at the summit of the vertex; antennæ short, slender, filiform, scarcely geniculated, the scape about as long as the three first joints of the flagellum, all the joints of which are subequal but slightly increasing in length towards the apical one, which is a little compressed laterally; face entirely flat; clypeus transverse, rather convex; labrum elongate, convex; mandibles robust, tridentate, the external tooth considerably the stoutest; cibarial apparatus long, tongue three times as long as the labium, slightly inflated in the centre, and terminating in a small knob; paraglossæ very short, not more than one-sixth the length of the tongue and acuminate; labial palpi about two-thirds the length of the tongue, the two first joints membranous, the basal one the most robust, and both tapering to an acute apex, shortly before which the two very short subclavate terminal joints articulate; labium about one-third the length of the tongue, its inosculation trifid, the central division considerably the longest and truncated at its extremity; maxillæ subhastate, nearly as long as the tongue, acutely acuminated towards their apex; maxillary palpi very short, two-jointed, the basal joint subclavate and slightly the longest, and inserted in a circular cavity, the terminal joint short ovate. Thorax subglobose; prothorax inconspicuous; mesothorax very convex; scutellum lunulate, very gibbous, and impending 263over the post-scutellum and metathorax, mucronated laterally; metathorax abruptly truncated; wings with two submarginal cells, and a third very slightly commenced, the two subequal, the second being the largest and receiving the first submarginal cell near its commencement and the second at the inosculation of the terminal transverso-cubital nervure; legs short, moderately stout, the tibiæ very slightly setose externally; claws short, bifid, the internal tooth near the external. Abdomen oblong, truncated at its base, very convex above and flat beneath, deflexed towards its extremity, and the terminal segment almost rounded, being very slightly produced in the centre and margined.

The MALE scarcely differs, excepting in the usual male characteristics, and by the apical segment being obsoletely tridentate.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. aterrima, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 4-4½ lines.

punctulatissima, Kirby,

2. phæoptera, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 4-4½ lines. (Plate XI. fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)

3. octomaculata, Smith, ♂ ♀. 3 lines.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The name of this genus may be derived from στελὶς, a sort of parasitical plant, perhaps mistletoe, if we could be sure that Panzer imposed it after being aware of the parasitical nature of these bees. It is true his book (the ‘Revision’) was published in 1805, and Kirby, who first intimated a suspicion of such cuckoo-like habits in some of the bees, published his in 1802; therefore it might have been given in allusion to that peculiarity of 264their economy, but it may also be from στηλὶς, a little column, in application to their cylindrical form. In but few of the parasitical bees do we know the precise nature of their transformations, I have therefore been obliged to be silent upon this point of their natural history, and I have nothing to state of its nature in these, although I expect there is much uniformity with but slight modifications in all. The species of this genus are parasitical upon the Osmiæ; thus the S. phæoptera is found to infest the O. fulviventris, and the S. octomaculata intrudes itself into the nests of O. leucomelana, both of which occur tolerably abundantly near Bristol. I have no doubt that the south-west and west of England, if well searched, would yield many choice insects.

It is singular that bee-parasitism does not prevail throughout all the genera of bees, some being subject to it and others not. Thus the genera Colletes, Andrena, Halictus, Panurgus, Eucera, Anthophora, Saropoda, Megachile, Osmia, and Bombus have all parasites, whereas the genera Cilissa, Macropis, Dasypoda, Ceratina, Anthidium, Chelostoma, Heriades, Anthocopa, and Apis have none, as far as we yet know; and some of the genera of parasites frequent two or more genera indifferently, whilst others are restricted to a single one; also some of the species of the parasitical genera infest indifferently several of the species of the genus to which their parasitism is mainly limited; other species have a more circumscribed range and do not visit the nests of more than a single species. What law may control all these seeming anomalies we cannot discover,—it may possibly be scent that guides them, and this may control their parasitism by indicating the species they are taught by their instinct to be most suitable from the 265quality of the pollen with which it supplies its own nest, to be that which is best adapted for the nurture of their young. It is not likely that we shall very speedily lift the veil from these mysteries, but they are suggestive of observation which in seeking one thing may fall upon another equally interesting.

I have usually caught these insects settled upon the leaves of shrubs, especially of fruit bushes, particularly that of the black currant, upon which, in a favourable locality, many bees, as well as numerous small fossorial Hymenoptera may be found in genial weather. I have never caught them upon flowers, nor do I know what flowers they frequent. The end of May, if warm, and throughout June, they are usually found most abundantly.

Genus 18. Cœlioxys, Latreille.

(Plate XII. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

Apis ** c 1 α, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Body subglabrous. Head transverse, concave posteriorly to fit the anterior portion of the thorax; ocelli in a triangle on the vertex; antennæ filiform, short, subgeniculated, the basal joint of the flagellum globose, the second subclavate, and all from the second subequal, the terminal joint compressed laterally; face flat, very pubescent; clypeus ovate, concavely truncated in front, its surface convex; labrum oblong, with its sides parallel, but with lateral processes at its articulation; mandibles broad, quadridentate; cibarial apparatus long, the tongue very long, nearly three times the length of the labium, linear but slightly inflated in the centre, and thence tapering to its extremity, and 266slightly covered with a very short down; paraglossæ wholly wanting; labial palpi membranous, the two first joints long, the second slightly the longest, and both tapering to the extremity of the second, which is acute, and has the third joint, which is very short and subclavate, articulated before the extremity, with the terminal one of equal length, and rounded at the apex, appended to it; labium about one-third the length of the tongue, its inosculation trifid and equal, and the central division acute; maxillæ subhastate and acuminate, not quite so long as the tongue; maxillary palpi very short, three-jointed, the basal joint the smallest, the second the most robust, and the terminal one ovate. Thorax subglobose; prothorax inconspicuous; mesothorax convex; wing-scales large; scutellum produced horizontally, and impending over the post-scutellum and metathorax, and having at each lateral extremity an acute, slightly-curved tooth projecting backwards; metathorax abruptly truncated; wings with two submarginal cells and a third commenced, the first slightly the longest, the second receiving both the recurrent nervures, the first near its commencement, and the second close to its termination; legs slender, spinulose externally on the tibiæ; claws rather long, slender, and simple. Abdomen very conical, truncated at the base, its segments slightly constricted, the apical one long, superficially carinated longitudinally in the centre, and much deflexed.

The MALE scarcely differs, excepting that the whole of the front of the head is more densely pubescent; the mandibles are deeply, acutely, and nearly equally tridentate, the terminal segment of the abdomen is variously mucronated or toothed at its apex, these processes pointing backwards, and the penultimate segment is more or less produced laterally.

267NATIVE SPECIES.

1. conica, Linnæus, ♂ ♀. 4-5 lines.

quadridentata, Linnæus, ♂.

quadridentata, Kirby, ♂.

2. simplex, Nyland, ♂ ♀. 5 lines.

conica, Kirby.

conica, Curtis, viii. 349.

Sponsa, Smith, ♂.

3. umbrina, Smith, ♂ ♀.

4. rufescens, St. Fargeau, ♂. 4-6 lines.

5. vectis, Curtis, ♂ ♀. 5-6 lines. (Plate XII. fig. 1 ♂ ♀)

6. inermis, Kirby.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

This genus is named from κοιλία, belly, ὀξὺς, acute, in application to the conical abdomen of the female. The insects of this genus are parasitical upon the genera Megachile and Saropoda. Thus, C. simplex infests M. circumcincta; C. rufescens, M. Willughbiella; C. vectis, M. maritima; and C. umbrina is parasitical on Saropoda bimaculata. Linnæus, from the different appearance of the two sexes made two species of them, and from the circumstance of his having described first the male as Apis quadridentata, this, by the law of priority, supersedes the name of C. conica as the name of the species, which is its female, and which he next described, and thus that sex, whose form Latreille adopted as typical of the genus, is in the series of species totally superseded and reduced to a synonym. The species of this genus are extremely difficult to separate from each other, no tangible character presenting itself conspicuously, although the Swedish 268entomologist Nylander supposes he has found one in the plates of the apical segment of the abdomen, especially those of the venter, in which he detects both a difference of form and a difference of relative length to that of the superior plates, and in the males he assumes that the teeth of the apical segment are constant characters. Not having had sufficient opportunity since this supposed discovery was made, for the examination of a great multitude of specimens, for it is only upon such an investigation that it can be firmly based, I cannot speak corroboratively upon the point, but it is very possibly a correct solution of the difficulty.

The peculiarity of these spines at the apical segments of the abdomen of the males is remarkable, they being straight projecting processes, or they have even a slight upward bearing. In the males of Anthidium and Osmia we observe spines also arming the apex of the last segment, but in these we can trace an evident use, both from the downward curvature of the abdomen itself, and that same tendency also in the spines. But in the insects of this genus they have not the same conspicuously apparent object, the abdomen itself even having an upward curvature, or rather a greater facility for turning upwards than downwards. These insects appear to be most abundant in the midland and southern counties, and, according to Curtis, they are numerously found at the back of the Isle of Wight. I have usually taken them on the wing and never on a flower, and I do not know the plants which they may prefer.

269Subsection 3. Dasygasters (convey pollen on the belly).

All with two submarginal cells to the wings.

Genus 19. Megachile, Latreille. (Leaf-cutters.)

Apis ** c 2 α, Kirby.

(Plate XII. fig. 2 and 3 ♂♀.)

Gen. Char.: Head as wide as the thorax, flat and broad on the vertex, where, on the anterior edge, the ocelli are disposed in a triangle; antennæ shortish, filiform, geniculated; scape about as long as two first joints of flagellum, which increases both in length of joints and their substance from base to apex, the terminal one being the longest, and longitudinally compressed; face and clypeus very pubescent, concealing their divisions; clypeus transversely lunulate, scarcely convex; labrum longitudinally slightly convex and oblong, with the sides parallel; mandibles broad, widening outwardly, irregularly quadridental, the two inner teeth obtuse; cibarial apparatus moderately long; tongue more than twice the length of the labium, tapering from the base to the apex, where it terminates in a minute knob; paraglossæ very short, scarcely one-sixth the length of the tongue, coadunate at the base and acuminate at the apex, where, in repose, they lap round the base of the tongue; labial palpi three-fourths the length of the tongue, the two basal joints long, subequal, membranous, linear, slightly tapering to the acute apex of the second, where the third subclavate joint articulates just before its termination, and conterminous with which is the fourth, shorter than the third, but also subclavate; labium not quite half the length of the tongue, with a long subobtuse process in the centre of its inosculation; maxillæ subhastate, and 270very acuminate, nearly as long as the tongue; maxillary palpi very short, two-jointed, the basal joint the shortest, and the terminal one obtuse at its apex, where it is furnished with brief setæ. Thorax subglobose, pubescent, the pubescence almost concealing its divisions; prothorax inconspicuous; mesothorax convex, subglabrous on the disk; scutellum, lunulate, convex; metathorax truncated; wings with two submarginal cells, the commencement of a third slightly indicated, the two complete ones nearly equal, the second of which receives both the recurrent nervures, one towards each extremity; legs robust, very setose; the posterior tibiæ slightly curved longitudinally, concavo-convex, broad at the extremity; all the plantæ as long as their tibiæ and as broad at the base but decreasing at the apex to the width of the following tarsal joints, the anterior pair fimbriated externally, and the posterior pair clothed, on the inner surface, with a dense, short brush, the three following joints short, subequal, the claw-joint as long as the three, and the claws with a broad basal inner tooth. Abdomen ovate, with parallel sides, convex above, truncated and concave at its base to fit the metathorax, distended horizontally in length, or with an upward curve, the four first segments slightly constricted, and their edges usually clothed with decumbent down; the terminal segment obtusely pointed and slightly depressed transversely towards its extremity; the ventral segments commencing with the second, clothed with parallel layers of moderately long, straight setæ, which in each parallel are of equal length, but those on the fifth segment are the shortest, upon all of which the insect conveys the pollen it collects.

The FEMALES of the second division of the genus scarcely differ.

271The MALES of the first division differ in having the head slightly larger and squarer above; the antennæ very slightly longer; the mandibles more acutely tridentate, with a distinct powerful basal tooth beneath, terminating the concavity of the organ; the anterior femora, tibiæ, and joints of their tarsi, excepting the terminal one, concavo-convex, the four first joints of the latter distended laterally, and edged with a dense fringe of setæ, the distension of these joints is widest at their articulation with the tibiæ and they decline in length to the claw-joint which is long; the claws bifid; the interior claw acute, but remote from the apical one; the posterior femora are very robust, their tibiæ, much curved, robust, almost triangular, and externally very convex; their plantæ, almost glabrous, not so long as the three following joints, externally rather twisted, and beneath furnished with a dense brush of long stiff hair.

In the second division of the genus the males are destitute of the distension of the anterior tarsi, these being instead densely fimbriated externally; the legs in them are much less robust, and more closely resemble those of their females.

NATIVE SPECIES.

§ Anterior tarsi of males much dilated.

1. Willughbiella, Kirby, ♂♀. 5-7 lines.

2. maritima, Kirby, ♂♀. 6-7 lines. (Plate XII. fig. 2 ♂♀.)

3. circumcincta, Kirby, ♂♀. 4½-5½ lines.

§§ Anterior tarsi of males not dilated.

1. ligniseca, Kirby, ♂♀. 5-7 lines.

2. centuncularis, Linnæus, ♂♀. 4-6 lines.

centuncularis, Kirby.

2723. argentata, Fabricius, ♂♀. 3-4½ lines. (Plate XII. fig. 3 ♂♀.)

Leachella, Kirby.

Leachella, Curtis.

4. odontura, Smith, ♂. 4½ lines.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Named from the great development of the labrum, μέγα large, χεῖλος lip, which is characteristic of all the Dasygasters, and also of some of the proximate Nudipedes, those parasitical upon them, Stelis and Cœlioxys, and which, too, resemble the sitos in the expansion and dentated formation of their mandibles, although they do not use them for the same purposes; this again exhibits an analogy of structure, that appears in the parasite to be merely corroborative of identity of existence.

These are more essentially summer insects than the majority of the preceding genera, although some of them present themselves with genial spring weather. The genus may be separated into two distinct divisions by the peculiar dilatation of the tarsi of the males of some of the species, but such division is not indicative of a difference of habits, as is distinctly the case in the genus Anthophora, and in which these combined circumstances Mr. Kirby suggested as acceptable for generic division, or, as he called it, the institution of another family. But in these we find in both divisions both wood-borers and earth-tunnelers, and some species are indifferently either as suits their accidental convenience. The general appearance of the insects is more that of ordinary bees, and the sexes are more approximate in their habit than is usually the case.

With this genus commences essentially those designated as artisan bees, although Colletes might very 273suitably come under that denomination. The species themselves of the genus are called leaf-cutters, from the habit they have of cutting pieces from the leaves of various shrubs and trees, for the purpose of lining their nests. The description of the operations of one species will apply precisely to that carried on by all, the occasional difference between them being the selection of the leaves of distinct plants; and it will exhibit the patient industry and perseverance with which these little upholsterers carry on their labours.

Thus M. centuncularis, the type of the genus, burrows in decaying wood or in brick walls, and sometimes also in the ground, and makes use of the cuttings of rose leaves,—not the petals,—and the leaves of the annual and perennial Mercury (Mercurialis annua and M. perennis). The M. ligniseca bores into sound Oak and the Mountain Ash, as well as into putrescent Elm, and uses Elm leaves to line its nests, sometimes called centunculi from their being as it were patched together. This is the largest of all our species, and is found very abundantly everywhere around London frequenting the flowers of the Thistle. The M. argentata, Fab., or Leachella of Kirby, is perhaps the prettiest of all the species, and forms its tunnels in sandbanks. I do not know what leaves this species selects, which used to be extremely rare, indeed for a long time only known by the specimen in the British Museum, until that ardent entomologist the Rev. F. W. Hope, to whom the University of Oxford owes its superb entomological collection, brought it in abundance from Southend, where, during his brief annual stay at his residence there, he used to find it in the grove which runs under the cliff edging the terrace of the village; it is extremely local, as that and Weybridge, in Surrey, 274are the only two spots where I have known it to be found. It is one of the most vivid fliers among the bees, and darts about, especially during brilliant sunshine in June, with the velocity of a sand-martin, and its note is shrill, but harmonious; it is not often caught upon flowers, being so extremely alert, but has been seen to visit the common Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare). The M. odontura, the last of the second division, which is known only in a single male specimen in the cabinets of the British Museum, is one of Dr. Leach’s west country captures, of which nothing precise is known, and it is only noticed here on account of the singular peculiarity of the armature of the apex of its abdomen, which brings it closer to the genus Osmia in that particular, although the majority of the males of the genus have the terminal segment slightly furcated.

In these observations I have commenced with the division which contains the type, and to which the present name of the genus would attach from that circumstance, were it ever thought desirable to separate those species, which have dilated anterior tarsi in the males, into a distinct genus, but which I could scarcely recommend. In the arrangement of the species in the preceding list, I have placed these latter first, from their more symmetrical appearance in the cabinet, by leading down to the terminal smaller species in due order, from these larger and more conspicuous ones.

The M. Willughbiella and maritima prefer decaying wood, and they have been found upon decaying Willows in the Midland Counties in extreme abundance; they might be called gregarious were the material within which they burrow connected in a continuous plane. The M. Willughbiella makes use of the leaves of the 275Rose and of the Laburnum, but the M. maritima seems to prefer the leaves of the Sallow. The M. circumcincta invariably burrows in banks, confirming the semi-gregarious habits of the genus, where it forms large colonies, and it is only by accident that it constructs secluded and solitary nests; it also makes use of rose leaves for lining its apartments. The insects are subject to the molestation of bee-parasites of the genus Cœlioxys, the C. quadridentata having been bred from the cells of this latter species,—that parasite also frequenting the M. Willughbiella, and the C. vectis is well known to infest the M. maritima. Thus, it appears to be only the species of this division with the dilated tarsi that are exposed to such incursions, there being no record of parasites frequenting the division in which the males have simple anterior tarsi. Besides this bee-parasite, they are also subject to the attacks of some dipterous insect, whose larvæ destroy the larvæ of the Megachile. Much difficulty exists in separating the females of some of the species from each other; in others the specific character is sufficiently noticeable. It is a singular concomitant that those males with the dilated anterior tarsi have the apical joint of the flagellum of the antennæ considerably compressed and also dilated laterally.

The proceedings of these bees are very curious. Although the tubes they usually form are long, they are so constructed as not to branch far away from the exterior of the material into which they bore,—sound or putrescent wood or earth, or old mortar joining the bricks of walls,—if in the second material, they usually follow the putrescent vein, and their tunnel in every case is rarely further than an inch or an inch and a half from the external surface. Both the sides of the tube, and the cells 276they form within them, will necessarily vary in diameter and length with the size of the species, but in the larger species they are about an inch and a quarter long and half an inch in diameter. Some entomologists have surmised that different species use the leaves of different plants for lining their cells; this, however, is not strictly the case, as shown in the preceding remarks; but, although not so, the series of nests in the same tube are always lined with cuttings from the same plant; perhaps a varying caprice operates upon each day’s labours and changes the plant, influenced by the drift of the wind or some casual freak.

The cylindrical tube being prepared, which is done very similarly to the way in which it is practised by all the labouring genera, by the gradual removal of the particles of the wood, or sand, or earth of which it consists, the insect’s instinct prompts it to fly forth to obtain the requisite lining, that the lateral earth may not fall in, or the wood taint the store to be accumulated for the young, for it is before this is done that the upholstery is commenced. Having fixed upon the preferred plant, Rose-bush or Laburnum or Sallow, or whatever it may be, it alights upon the leaf, and fixing itself upon the edge, it holds it with three legs on each side, then using its mandibles as the cutter of silhouettes would his scissors, and, just as rapidly as he cuts out a profile, does this ingenious little creature ply the tools it is furnished with by nature. The oval or semicircular cutting being thus speedily dispatched, with the legs still clinging to the surfaces, the insect biting its way backwards, the piece cut off necessarily remains within the clutch of the legs, and, when about falling, the rejoicing labourer expands her wings and flies off with it with a hum of delightful triumph, the cutting being carried 277perpendicularly to her body. In a direct line she wings her way to the receptacle, and arrived at the mouth of the aperture within which she has to convey it, she rolls it to its requisite tubular form and thrusts it forward to the bottom of the cavity. The first piece for the lining of each cell is always oval and larger in proportion than the succeeding ones, which, to the number of three or four, are semicircular, the first piece having an extra use to serve in forming a concave bottom to the cavity. Having completed the requisite manipulation, for adjusting it to shape the external lining of the bottom and sides of the first cell, she withdraws backwards, again flies off, and, as if she had traced a trail in the air, or had marked its limpidity with a frothy surge, like that left in the wake of a ship, to note the road for her return, back she wends to the same plant, and proximately to the spot of her recent triumphant exploit renews the operation, but the result of which, this time, is to be semicircular. Home she flies again, and the arrangement within of this piece is different to that of the first, for this is simply tubular, and so placed that it imbricates with its cut margin within the serrated edge of the first and the third, and in case of a fourth the fourth also is similarly placed, so that one laps within the other, the edges of two of these cuttings never being conterminous. The number of the coatings is apparently regulated by the drier or moister condition of the substance in which the tunnel is drilled. Another duty has now to be performed, indeed, that for which all the preceding labours were undertaken,—the provision for its young, wherein it perpetuates its kind,—and thus on and on flows the wonderful stream of life, whose origin who shall estimate through the millennia it has hitherto 278so placidly and uniformly traversed, and whose termination who shall predict? Having completed the requisite store of honey mixed with pollen, this is carried to the brush with which the under side of the abdomen is furnished, by means of the posterior legs. The honey and pollen are gathered from different kinds of thistles, whence it acquires a reddish hue and looks almost like conserve of roses, and the nest is filled with it to within a line of its top; the egg is then deposited, but the coating of leaves, which enclose the cell completely, secures the store from lateral absorption, although the mixture is rather more fluid, consisting of a relatively greater quantity of honey than is usual, excepting perhaps in the case of Ceratina, and although no viscous secretion is used to bind the leaves together, which retain their position from merely lateral pressure. The cell has now to be closed, and the artificer knowing that the transverse section of the cylinder is circular, again flies forth, and without compass, but with all the accuracy with which Leonardo da Vinci struck a circle with his pencil, to testify his mastery, cuts the leaf again in that form, and as surely: and, three or four, or five or six times, repeats this operation, returning each time with each piece, so many having been variously observed. The separation between the cells being thus consolidated, it is further thickened by the lateral, spare, protruding edge of the leaf first introduced lapping over it. The whole process is again renewed in the same manner as at first, the bottom edge of the cutting of the external leaf is again curved to form a concave bottom to the next cell, and the sides are similarly formed, and each cell fits the preceding like the top of one thimble placed in the mouth of another. The repetition of all this is 279continued until the completion of the five or six cells necessary to fill the tube, when another is formed with the same routine, if her store of eggs is not exhausted; and the orifice of the tube, upon the completion of the last cell, which is closed in the usual way, is filled up with earth. Should any casualty interfere with her labours or temporarily derange their utility, without the obstruction being one that would permanently affect it, the remarkable patience and rapidity with which the repairs are effected, or the obstructions removed, is worthy of all admiration,—the στοργὴ, or love of offspring, being the predominant passion which overthrows and controls every difficulty.

When full fed, the larva spins a thick cocoon of silk, which is attached to the sides of the cell; the outer coating of this cocoon is of a coarser and browner silk than the interior, which is formed of very delicate threads of a slaty-whitish colour and of a close texture, and which is as lustrous as satin. The exact period of their evolution from this state is not recorded, but it is probable that they pass the winter enveloped in their cocoon as pupæ, and in their season come forth the following year.

Genus 20. Anthidium, Fabricius.

(Plate XIII. fig. 1 ♂♀.)

Apis ** c 2 β, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Body subglabrous. Head transverse, as wide as the thorax; ocelli in a triangle on the vertex, which is flat; antennæ shortish, slender, filiform, subgeniculated; the scape stouter than the flagellum, subclavate, 280first joint of flagellum globose, the remainder subequal; face flat; clypeus triangular, truncated at its base, slightly rounded in front and convex; labrum longitudinally oblong, the sides parallel and concavo-convex; mandibles dilated at the apex, where they are quinque-dentate; the alternate teeth smallest; cibarial apparatus long; tongue very long, tapering to its extremity; paraglossæ very short, one-sixth the length of the tongue, coadunate at the base and subhastate; labial palpi more than half the length of the tongue, the two first joints very long, the second the longest, and both tapering to the acute extremity of this, where, just before its apex, the third very short subclavate joint articulates with the still shorter terminal joint conterminous with it; labium one-third the length of the tongue, its inosculation with an acute projection in the centre; maxillæ as long as the tongue, subhastate and acuminate; maxillary palpi springing from a deep sinus at its base, very short, two-jointed, the basal joint the shortest, and the second obtuse one terminating with a few rigid setæ. Thorax subglobose; prothorax inconspicuous; mesathorax slightly convex, wing-scales large; scutellum lunulate, projecting and impending over the metathorax, which is truncated; wings with two submarginal cells, and a third indistinctly commenced, the second slightly the longest, and receiving the two recurrent nervures one at each extremity; legs moderate, subsetose, the tibiæ fimbriated along the edges, the anterior spurs slightly palmated; the plantæ of the four anterior pairs longer than their tibiæ, but those of the posterior not quite so long, and all densely clothed all round with a brush of short close hair; the claws distinctly bifid. Abdomen semicircular, very convex; the base truncated and hollowed 281to fit the metathorax; the segments slightly constricted, the terminal segment transversely concave, and its apex terminating in three slight angles; the venter, which is flat, is densely clothed from the second segment with parallel layers of equal, moderately long, shining hair, the segment being distinctly indicated by these layers.

The MALE differs in being considerably larger; the mandibles merely tridentate; the legs longer and more robust; the tibiæ and tarsi more densely fimbriated externally, and the tarsi relatively much longer; the abdomen densely edged laterally with short curled hair, the terminal segment with three processes, the lateral ones strong and curved internally, the central one shorter and straight, and the penultimate segment transversely concave, with a strong tooth on each side curved externally, and the venter glabrous beneath.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. manicatum, Linnæus. 5-8 lines. (Plate XIII. fig. 1 ♂♀.)

manicatum, Kirby.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The generic name in this instance seems to be manufactured from the root ἄνθος, a flower. I cannot trace any other derivation as it may not be attributed merely to the habits of the species in frequenting flowers, for is not this the prime function of all the bees, wherein they fulfil a most important office in the economy of nature? How easy might it have been to regulate that flowers should fertilize themselves, as many do without any extraneous intervention, but by this wise and benevolent ordination a tribe of sensitive creatures is introduced to 282be perpetuated by the perpetuation they supply to that which supports them, and in this circle of reciprocal good offices lend an additional charm to the genial seasons, by the animation which they give to the face of nature, in embellishing the plants they visit with their vivacity and music.

These bees are gay insects, for both sexes are richly spotted with yellow, and they present the single instance which occurs amongst our bees of the male being considerably the largest, and so boisterous is he in his amours that he forcibly conveys his partner to the upper regions of the air, where she is compelled to yield to his solicitations. His whole structure is fully adapted to carry out this violent abduction, as well in the length and power of his limbs as in the prehensile teeth with which the apex of his abdomen is armed.

We have but one species of the genus, although the southern parts of the Continent abound in them. The habits of ours differ very considerably from those of the preceding genus. First, in the peculiarity just described, and then in the formation of their nests. They do not, like the majority of the wild bees, excavate or bore a cavity for themselves, but take one already formed by the xylophagous larva of some considerable insect, such as Cerambyx moschatus, or Cossus ligniperda. This they line, to the depth suitable to them, with cottony down which they scrape from the leaves or stalk of the Woolly Hedge-nettle (Stachys Germanica), the Wild Lychnis (Agrostemma), and other woolly-leaved plants. In collecting this wool the insect is very active, scraping it off rapidly with its broad mandibles, and as this is doing she gradually rolls it up into a little ball, making with the vibration of her wings 283a considerable hum all the time she is gathering it, and when the ball is sufficiently large she flies off with it to her nidus; this operation she continues until sufficient is accumulated for her purpose, which consists in lining the cavity with the material; she then forms cells within it in succession, gluing the same material together to resist the escape of the mixed store of pollen and honey she intends to fill it with, having in the operation smoothed the sides of the cell which is closed after the deposit of the egg, and another similar cell is then proceeded with, and this is repeated until the selected cavity is filled, or that she has exhausted her store. Having completed her labours, she wanders away. Sometimes the cavity is large and admits of the conjunction of many of these cells together; in that case they are all collectively covered with the same envelope of downy substance. The larva, having consumed its entire store of food, spins a cocoon of brown silk wherein it remains throughout the winter, and with the evolution of spring, feeling its propulsive energy, it changes into the pupa. In June and July, but earlier if the weather be continuously warm, the imago comes forth in its maturity, to live its little life of labour intermingled with pleasure, and in its pleasing hum to give cheerful notification of its perfect satisfaction.

Genus 21. Chelostoma, Latreille.

(Plate XIII. fig. 2, ♂♀.)

Apis ** c 2 γ partly, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Body nearly glabrous and coarsely punctured. Head subglobose, rather wider than the thorax; 284ocelli in a triangle in the centre of the vertex, which is broad and slightly convex; antennæ short, subclavate, geniculated, the scape nearly one-half the length of the flagellum and more robust; the first and second joint of the flagellum subclavate, the basal one the longest and most robust, the remainder short, subequal, and gradually enlarging to the apical one, which is obtuse and as long as the basal joint; face flat, slightly convex between the insertion of the antennæ; cheeks large and protuberant; clypeus concave, projecting, lobated in front, where it is slightly emarginate in the centre; labrum elongate at its articulation, broader than beyond, and from this expansion immediately and abruptly contracting, from the inner angles of the contraction waving to about three-fourths its length, whence it is produced into an equal truncated oblong; mandibles bidentate, external tooth acute, inner one obtuse; cibarial apparatus long; the tongue twice the length of the labium, narrowest at its base and obtuse at the extremity, and clothed with short setæ; paraglossæ very short, coadunate at the base and acuminate; labial palpi two-thirds the length of the tongue, with the three first joints membranous and flat, conterminous and tapering to their extremity, the first joint about one-half the length of the second, the third twice the length of the fourth, which is clavate and articulated within the apex of the third; maxillæ subhastate and acuminate, as long as the tongue; maxillary palpi very short, rather stout, the joints subequal and the terminal one acute. Thorax oval, convex; prothorax inconspicuous wing-scales rather large; scutellum transversely quadrate, convex; post-scutellum transverse, linear; metathorax gradually declining, with a glabrous triangular space at its base; 285wings with two submarginal cells nearly equal and a third commenced; the second receives both the recurrent nervures, the first beyond its commencement and the second before its termination; legs shortish, subsetose, the anterior spurs short, broad, and emarginate at the apex; the posterior plantæ with a compact dense brush within; claw-joint long; claws simple. Abdomen longer than head and thorax, subclavate, convex above, retuse at the base, and the apical segment obtuse at its extremity, the venter flat, its segments clothed from the second with dense parallel brushes of longish hair for the conveyance of pollen.

The MALE differs in having the head less conspicuously globose; the cheeks less protuberant; the whole body more pilose, the anterior spurs robust, short, and abruptly obliquely truncated; the antennæ slender, filiform, much longer than in the female, but not much longer than the head, and from the fourth to the ninth joints serratulate within, adapting it to a sharp curve; the abdomen being equal, cylindrical, retuse at its base, convex above, and flat on the venter, where it has a longitudinal deeply concave mucro in the centre of the second segment, which concavity runs along all the subsequent segments, and it is densely pilose on the fourth; the terminal dorsal segment being deeply emarginate in the centre and produced on each side into a broad obtuse process; the claws are more robust than in the female and bidentate; the posterior pair being subclavate, and their single tooth abruptly reflected.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. florisomne, Linnæus, ♂♀. 3-5 lines. (Plate XIII. fig. 2 ♂♀.)

286maxillosa, Linnæus.

maxillosa, Kirby.

2. campanularum, Kirby, ♂♀. 2-2½ lines.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

These insects are named from χηλὴ, a forceps, and στόμα, a mouth,—in allusion to the forcipate form of the mandibles, which are strong, and cross each other in inaction.

They and the next genus are styled carpenter bees, but they are not more consistently thus called than might be Anthophora furcata and the genus Ceratina; they, in fact, like the latter, just as often avail themselves of an empty straw to form their cells in, or the cylinder that has been drilled by some xylophagous beetle of their own size, as they themselves drill into palings and solid wood for the purpose, but when they do this, it is facilitated to them by their powerful mandibles and their square and strong head. They are certainly very compactly formed, their structure being indicative of great power, of course relatively to their size. When they drill their cylinders themselves they are extremely persevering in its execution, and in the process, the material they extract, which is like fine sawdust, they withdraw from the depth of the cavity by passing it beneath them, and pushing it out at the orifice by means of their posterior legs and the apex of the abdomen, for they are too long to be able to turn within the cavity they have formed, its capacity not being sufficient to permit this, as it is very little larger in diameter than themselves. I have repeatedly watched them in these operations.

Having found or drilled a suitable cylindrical tube, they 287do nothing further to it but collect a sufficient store of provender for the nutriment of the young one, upon which they deposit the egg which is to produce it. The insect then flies away to collect a small quantity of clay intermingled with sand, and this they knead together by means of a viscous secretion which they disgorge, and this forms a concrete that hardens firmly and rapidly; to anticipate its rapid drying they speedily fly back, carrying this small ball within their mandibles, and with it they cover over the provision they have collected, and which, adhering to the sides of the cavity, forms a firm and hard division, effectually separating it from the next store of provision that is to be accumulated for the supply of the larva that will be hatched from the egg that is to be deposited, and the same process is repeated again and again until all the eggs are laid. In their development, which takes place near midsummer, the males precede the females by about ten days. They associate sometimes in colonies, often using the tubes of the straw thatch which covers cottages for their nidus.

These bees are subject to the parasitical intrusion of Fœnus jaculator and assectator, which I have repeatedly caught at Battersea, hovering opposite the cells of these insects bored in the shingles forming the enclosure of an old garden outhouse. These parasites are themselves peculiar creatures, forming a type distinct from the Ichneumons, and belonging to the group Aulacus, upon which see my paper in the ‘Entomologist,’ June, 1841. In these insects, the abdomen springs from immediately beneath the scutellum. Chrysis cyanea and ignita are also bred at the expense of these bees, neither of the species of which are uncommon; the smaller one, the C. campanularum, which is the smallest of our true bees, excepting 288perhaps one or two of the Nomadæ, I used to find in abundance upon the railings of the fields that skirt Hampstead Heath, on the right-hand going from London, parallel with the Vale of Health, and thence rising to the Holly enclosure of the Earl of Mansfield’s mansion. This spot has been productive to me of many very choice aculeate Hymenoptera, and supplied me with them in abundance at a time when even the chief metropolitan collections were bare of them. It has also furnished me with several very desirable Diptera of extremely rare genera. The male of the larger species of this genus Linnæus called florisomne, from its habit of curling up its abdomen and antennæ, and passing the night in flowers. Those which they chiefly frequent are the species of Wallflower, and the Campanula, especially the round-leaved Throatwort.

Genus 22. Heriades, Spinola.

(Plate XIII. fig. 3 ♂♀.)

Apis ** c 2 γ partly, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Body glabrous and much punctured. Head globose and curving to the thorax posteriorly; ocelli in a triangle far forward on the vertex; antennæ slightly subclavate, the scape not half so long as the flagellum, the first joint of which is robust, subclavate, and twice the length of the second, which, with the rest, are subequal, very slightly lengthening to the terminal one, which is as long as the basal one and laterally compressed; face slightly convex, cheeks large and convex; clypeus lunulate, convex, and with two minute central teeth on its front margin; labrum longitudinally oblong, 289rather broadest at the base and slightly waved laterally, concavo-convex and subemarginate at the apex; mandibles subequal, tridentate at the apex, and the central tooth obtuse; cibarial apparatus moderately long, tongue twice the length of the labium, with a small knob at its apex; paraglossæ very short, almost obsolete, coadunate at the base; labial palpi two-thirds the length of the tongue, the two first joints membranous and long, the first one-third the length of the second, which tapers to its acute extremity, before the end of which the two terminal, subclavate, very short, subequal joints are inserted; labium half the length of the tongue, slightly produced in the centre of its inosculation; maxillæ subhastate, two-thirds the length of the tongue; maxillary palpi three-jointed, short, robust, equal, and collectively subfusiform, the terminal one rather acute. Thorax globose; prothorax inconspicuous; scutellum lunulate; post-scutellum linear, transverse; metathorax declining; wings with two submarginal cells, and the commencement of a third indicated, the second larger than the first, subtriangular, and receiving both the recurrent nervures, one at each of its extremities; legs short, rather robust, subsetose and spinulose; posterior tibiæ convex externally and with their plantæ rugose, the latter covered beneath with a dense brush of short hair; claws simple. Abdomen cylindrical, convex above, retuse at the base, and the first and second segments slightly constricted at their extremity, obtuse, and from the end of the third segment sensibly declining to the apex; plane on the venter, where, from the second segment, the plate of each, excepting the glabrous terminal one, is covered with a dense brush of short hair for the conveyance of pollen.

290The MALE differs in the antennæ being rather longer, more distinctly filiform, the seventh segment of the abdomen concealed under the extremity of the sixth, and the venter from the third segment longitudinally deeply concave, the plate of the third itself covered with hair; the claws more robust and each equally bifid, not bidentate.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. truncorum, Linnæus, ♂♀. 3-3½ lines. (Plate XIII. fig. 3 ♂♀.)

truncorum, Kirby.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The names of insects are not always very aptly given, for the only available derivation of this appears to be from ἔπιον, wool; in allusion to the clothing of its venter; but, if so, it should be spelt without the H, for the first letter is without an aspiration. The habits of these closely resemble those of the preceding genus, to which they have a great personal likeness, and therefore their natural history would be but its reiteration. Our solitary species is a rare insect, but I expect western England would produce it. It is like those of the preceding genus, of a uniform black colour, punctured, but it approximates more closely than they do to the type of form exhibited in the genus Osmia. They visit the same flowers as the preceding genus.

Genus 23. Anthocopa, St. Fargeau.

(Plate XIV. fig. 2 ♂♀.)

Gen. Char.: Body glabrous, subpubescent, shining. Head subglobose, as wide as the thorax; ocelli placed in a slight curve on the summit of the vertex; antennæ 291short, geniculated, the flagellum subclavate seen in front, but seen from above, owing to the compression of the terminal joint, subfusiform, the first joint of the flagellum globose, rather robust, the second short, subclavate and subequal with the rest, which increase gradually in length and substance to the terminal one, which is the longest, and laterally compressed; face flattish; clypeus subquadrate, very convex and very pubescent; “labrum oblong, quadrate; mandibles strong, tridentate; labium (tongue) long, filiform; labial palpi having the third joint articulated externally on the outer side of the second; maxillary palpi four-jointed.” Thorax globose; scutellum lunate; post-scutellum transverse, linear; metathorax rounded; wings with two submarginal cells and the commencement of a third just indicated, the second very slightly larger than the first, and receiving both the recurrent nervures, the first just beyond its commencement and the second close to its termination; legs short, rather robust, subsetose; the posterior tibiæ externally convex and the posterior plantæ with a dense, short brush beneath; the claws simple. Abdomen cylindrical, retuse at the base, convex above, declining from the base of the fourth segment to the extremity, the first and second segments very slightly constricted, the margin of the posterior one, at the apex, slightly crenulated, the ventral segments plane and from the second covered with a dense brush of parallel hair, excepting the sixth, which is reflected laterally and longitudinally, convex down the centre.

The MALE differs in having “the sixth segment of the abdomen emarginate, and with a strong tooth on each side; the terminal segment emarginate, thus producing two strong, lateral, obtuse teeth, the ventral plates of 292these same segments emarginate at the extremity, and the emargination fringed with hair; the claws bifid.”

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. papaveris, Latreille. (Plate XIV. fig. 2 ♂♀.)

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Named by St. Fargeau from ανθος, a flower, and κοπὴ, a cutting or incision, from its habit of cutting sections out of the petals of the common scarlet poppy with which to line the cells it forms within the cylinder it excavates, just as Megachile does with the leaves of various plants. It is noticed as British upon the faith of the specimens introduced by Leach into the cabinets of the British Museum and presumptively caught in the west or south-west of England, a region rich in rarities. Rennie in fact tells us that he has found it at Largs, in Scotland. One of Leach’s specimens I received in exchange from that establishment in 1842, and which is now in the possession of Mr. Desvignes, to whom my collections passed in the following year. This genus forms a sort of combination between the genera Megachile and Osmia, it having the upholstering habits of the former in the mode with which it lines its nest, and the general habit of the latter. At a first glance, before its habits were known or its structure examined, even an experienced entomologist might have placed it under Osmia, as an unrecognised species, for it very strongly resembles the Osmia leucomelana. This proves how very inconclusive habit is as an index to habits, the latter of these insects drilling into the pith of brambles, and the Anthocopa tunnelling cylinders into the hardest trodden roads or pathways and lining them with its crimson hangings.

293From the extreme rarity of the insect, I have been unable to examine the cibarial apparatus, and thence to ascertain upon what substantial grounds the generic distinctions are based, which separate it from Osmia. Whether it was these mere habits of the insect which induced Le Pelletier de St. Fargeau to establish the genus I do not know, but he is always extremely slovenly, and therefore very unsatisfactory in his characteristics, which are never framed in a strictly explicit manner. In consequence of all these difficulties, I have merely been able under the generic character to introduce such as he has given, which I could not derive from the personal external inspection of Mr. Desvignes’ female (my own selection of whose bees for the purposes of this work he has been so kind as to lend me, and whom I thus publicly present with my best thanks). I have therefore compounded a character as well as I could from St. Fargeau’s descriptions, inserted in the tenth volume of the ‘Encyclopédie Méthodique,’ and from his work on the Hymenoptera, forming one of the ‘Suites à Buffon.’

The habits of these bees, as said above, are to excavate vertical cylinders in hard down-trodden pathways and roads, by the sides of fields where corn is grown, and where consequently the common red poppy is abundant. From the petals of the flowers of this plant they cut out semicircular pieces, precisely as is done by Megachile with the more rigid leaves of shrubs and trees, and convey them home and line their nests with them, just as is practised by that genus with those leaves,—with this difference merely, that a sufficient portion of the upper edge of the pieces of the petals used is left projecting, for the purpose of forming a covercle to the nidus, and which, when filled with provender and the 294egg deposited, is refolded over it and covered in, and it is closed up with earth. They then proceed to make another excavation, which is treated in the same manner, for they deposit only one larva in a tube. If disturbed in their retreat, they will show themselves at its mouth, like Dasypoda, to see what is the matter.

I would urge our collecting entomologists, especially those who have the opportunity of hunting up the west of England, to use due diligence and strive to confirm the native existence of this bee and add specimens to the cabinets of their fellow-entomologists.

Genus 24. Osmia, Latreille.

(Plate XIV. figs. 1 and 3 ♂♀.)

APIS ** c 2 δ, Kirby.

Gen. Char.: Head subglobose, concave, posteriorly fitting the prothorax and about as wide as the thorax; ocelli placed far forward on the vertex, which is wide and convex, in a curved line; antennæ filiform, sometimes subclavate, short, and geniculated, the scape robust, as long as the four following joints, the basal joint of the flagellum globose, its second joint clavate and as long as the terminal one, the remainder short, subequal, and gradually but slightly increasing in length; the face flattish; the clypeus a truncated triangle, convex; labrum longitudinally oblong, a little laterally distended at the articulation, from whence the sides are parallel; mandibles broad at the apex, obscurely tridentate, the internal teeth obtuse and short; cibarial apparatus long; the tongue three times the length of the labium, clothed with short hair and tapering from the 295base to the acute apex; paraglossæ very short, coadunate at the base and acuminate at the apex; labial palpi more than half the length of the tongue, the two first joints membranous and long, the basal one the broadest, seated on a petiole and not so long as the second, which tapers to an acute point, before the apex of which the remaining two short subclavate conterminous joints articulate; labium about one-third the length of the tongue, acutely produced in the centre of its inosculation; maxillæ as long as the tongue, subhastate and acuminate; maxillary palpi four-jointed, rather short, the joints subequal and subclavate, but the second is both the most robust and slightly the longest. Thorax oval or globose; prothorax inconspicuous; scutellum lunulate and convex; post-scutellum transverse and linear; the metathorax abruptly truncated; wings with two submarginal cells, and a third distinctly commenced, the second the longest, and receiving both the recurrent nervures, the first towards its centre and the second near its termination; legs moderate, setose, the plantæ of all with a dense brush beneath; claw-joint longer than the three preceding; claws simple. Abdomen short, cylindrical, convex, the terminal segment slightly pointed, the ventral segments densely pilose in parallel lines from the second.

The MALE differs in having the antennæ longer and always filiform, the ventral segments very concave, and the terminal dorsal segment variously mucronated, tuberculated, spinose or serrated, and the claws bifid.

NATIVE SPECIES.

1. leucomelana, Kirby, ♂♀. 3-4½ lines. (Plate XIV. fig. 3 ♂♀.)

2. spinulosa, Kirby, ♂♀. 3-4 lines.

2963. pilicornis, Bainbridge, MS., ♂♀. 4-4½ lines.

4. bicolor, Schrank, ♂♀. 4-5 lines. (Plate XIV. fig. 1 ♂♀.)

5. fulviventris, Panzer, ♂♀. 4-5 lines.

Leaiana, Kirby.

6. ænea, Linnæus, ♂♀. 3-4½ lines.

cærulescens, Linnæus, ♀.

cærulescens, Kirby, ♀.

7. parietina, Curtis, [V. 222.] ♂♀. 3-4 lines.

8. xanthomelana, Kirby, ♂♀. 4-7 lines.

atricapilla, Curtis, [V. 222.] ♀.

9. aurulenta, Panzer, ♂♀. 4-6 lines.

tunensis, Kirby.

10. rufa, Linnæus, ♂♀. 3-6 lines.

bicornis, Linnæus.

bicornis, Kirby.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Named from ὀσμὴ, sweet-scent, from some fancied idea of their possessing the property of emitting a sweet odour; but this, although it is the case with many of the bees,—for instance, with the genera Prosopis, Halictus, Nomada, some of the Anthophoræ, Saropoda, and the male Bombi and Apathi,—I have not noticed in any of this subsection, the Dasygasters, and therefore not in any of the present genus. It is possible that when richly laden with pollen, this may emit some smell, but I am not aware that any of the scent of flowers lies in the anthers or their pollen, although this in some cases has a spermatic odour pointing to its express function; but be this as it may, such is their name. These as a group are what are called the ‘Mason Bees,’ from the habit they have of agglutinating particles of 297sand or earth mixed with minute pebbles, scarcely larger than grains of sand, or raspings of wood combined in the same manner, with a secretion which they emit, and of which they form their cells. The instinct of the creature prompts it to be speedy in the operation, as the material, like plaster of Paris, dries very rapidly to a hard substance. Whether they have the power of softening the edges as the manufacture of the cell proceeds is not known, nor whether, as they add the material, it instantaneously consolidates itself, but the colour of the structures themselves would indicate a simultaneous mixture. This could not be the case, if the mortar or mixture were formed away from the domicile and brought home in little pellets, each being added upon the insects’ arrival, although they obtain it all from the same spot, whence arises its uniformity in colour, and they are speedy in the formation of their nests. These cells are rather rough externally, according to the nature of the material of which they are composed, but they are very smooth within. The nature of the cells varies with the places of their deposit, which is dependent upon the idiosyncrasy of the species. Thus, those which construct their cells in wood, form them of moistened particles of wood, and those which make them in cavities of any kind, in the earth, beneath stones, or within empty snail-shells, make a mortar of earth and sand and small pebbles. Some are strictly uniform in the selection of the material wherein they build, but others are perfectly indifferent to its locality, and adopt either earth or wood, and sometimes the mortar of walls, sandbanks or chalk cliffs. According to the nature or the size of the receptacle which they select, is the adjustment of these cells. Where the cavity is restricted they 298place them end to end, but where it is more roomy they affix them side to side, completely adapting themselves to the circumstances of the locality as I shall instance below, in the description of the special habits of the more conspicuous species. I have elsewhere referred to the metallic colouring of many of the species of this genus, and amongst them is found the greatest sexual disparity of personal appearance, the O. leucomelana, and one or two of the neighbouring species being, perhaps, the only ones wherein uniformity of appearance would unite the partners together. The majority are very pubescent insects, and the females of the terminal species in the foregoing list are remarkable for a couple of inwardly curved horns, springing from the base of the clypeus just below the insertion of the antennæ, an appendage usually a male attribute.

There is very great dissimilarity in the habits of the various species, whence no single characteristic will embrace them, nor is there any distinctive feature whereby the genus might bear subdivision, either from habits or habit, as will be collected from the following cursory survey of their special natural history.

Thus the first species, the O. leucomelana, named so from the white decumbent down which edges the black segments of the abdomen, extracts the pith from bramble sticks, and its cells are formed and closed with a composition made of triturated wood or leaves. The cylinders it forms are usually about five inches deep, and within this it constructs about the same number of cells proportionate to the small size of the insect. These are midsummer insects, coming forth in June and July; they are very local, but seem to abound in the vicinity of Bristol, whence Mr. Thwaites formerly sent me specimens. 299A very few days serve for the hatching of the larva, which spins a slight silken cocoon, and in this dormitory it reposes until its season again comes round. Under the influence of the following first genial spring weather, the larva is transmuted into the pupa, and the active little imago comes forth upon the settlement of our variable spring, in the merry days of June, and thus is perpetuated the circle of its existence, but which is sometimes abridged by its special parasite, the pretty little Stelis octomaculata. Many of the species in the males are distinguished by a peculiar armature of the apex of the abdomen; the second being named by Kirby from the circumstance. A very remarkable singularity distinguishes the males of the third species, in the fringe of short hair that runs along the flagellum of its antennæ. This, I believe, was first noticed by the late Mr. Bainbridge, a very active practical entomologist, who took the insect at Darenth or Birchwood, and distributed specimens with this manuscript name attached, which has since been appropriated by another entomologist to whom the science was wholly unknown at that time, but as it is scarcely consistent with scientific courtesy to adopt such a course, and as the MS. names of Linnæus and Kirby have been retained, where it was authorized by their being attached to undescribed species, I have restored to Mr. Bainbridge his just rights, and have claimed the same for myself, in the case of Andrena longipes, and which many cabinets must still possess with my name attached, in my own writing, unless their possessors have chosen to adopt the illegitimate parentage; for the entomologists of my own standing well know that I always freely distributed specimens to all who desired them of the many very desirable 300insects which I have captured in the course of my entomological career. The fourth and the ninth species, the O. bicolor and O. aurulenta, have very much the same habits, both usually burrowing in sandbanks, sometimes however in wood, in which case the perforation, contrary to the mode of wood-drilling bees, is made upwards, a sagacity or instinct which saves it much trouble, for the particles as they are removed by the mandibles are passed beneath the insect, and their own gravity carries them downwards, and thus the insect saves itself the labour of conveying them out as they accumulate in inconvenient quantities. The cells in this case are placed end to end. When they burrow in the earth, the latter species often associate gregariously in large numbers, and if they select a cavity, instead of tunnelling it themselves, and it be too large to take one cell upon the others, they form them side by side, and thus fill the space. This is the case when they adopt snail-shells as the receptacle for their incunabula, and this is done by both these species, and the shells they select are the empty ones of Helix nemoralis, hortensis, and adspersa. The capacity of the latter shell being much greater than that of the others, and too wide for a single succession, she fills the interval by placing them side by side, and with the increase of the whorl of the shell towards its orifice she places them across the space, and thus completes her task. In the former shells, the cavity at first admits of the succession of but one upon the other, but with its enlargement she places them side by side, and this repeated fills the hollow. Its aperture is then closed with earth and pebbles or sticks agglutinated together, as described at the commencement. The O. fulviventris burrows in wood, and upon this species the Stelis phæoptera is parasitical; and that 301very pretty but extremely common species the O. ænea, in which the male is of a rich bronzy tint, and the female of a beautiful blue, verging sometimes to nearly black, burrows also in wood, although sometimes it capriciously selects old walls or chalk-cliffs, and is subject to the incursions of the same parasite. Perhaps the most extraordinary species is the O. parietina, figured and named by Curtis, and which he first found at Ambleside; it has since been found in the Grampians very considerably above the level of the sea, and it is thus essentially a northern species both from altitude and locality. It would appear that this species selects some flat stone of about a foot in surface, lying upon the ground over a hollow spot. Such a specimen, sent to the British Museum, had attached to its under side two hundred and thirty cocoons, indicative of a considerable colony, or perhaps the accumulation of successive years, as one-third of these cocoons were empty of tenants. These, in their new depository, continued developing themselves in the perfect state between March and June, males appearing first. When the transformations of the season ceased, five-and-thirty were still left to present themselves another year, and the following spring these were developed; thus, including those which had already escaped when the stone and its treasure was secured, three successive seasons were occupied in their transmutations. It may be a species that requires three years for its metamorphosis, and the whole deposit of cocoons may have been the result of three years’ accumulative structure, the vital activity of their northern life being perhaps more sluggish than in species frequenting the south. The last species the O. rufa, that in which the female is remarkable for its inverted horns, which 302must be for some use in its economy, is perhaps the most common of all. I have found it in abundance upon old walls with a sunny aspect at Erith, and throughout the pleasant Crays of Kent. It is indifferent as to the choice of its domicile, selecting either walls, where I have chiefly found them, sandbanks, or the decaying stumps of pollard-willows. Its processes are similar to those of some of the earlier described, but its larva is longer in full feeding, which, when it has consumed all its provender spins a tough cocoon of brown silk, wherein it undergoes its changes; some, depending much upon locality, pass into pupæ in the autumn, others hibernate as larvæ which are subject to destruction from the attacks of the Chalcideous insect, Monodontomerus dentipes, previously noticed under Anthophora. Some of the Chrysididæ also infest several of the species of this genus, and I have no doubt that Stelis aterrima is parasitical upon one of them, although it has not been recorded. The various species frequent many flowers, especially those abundant in the locality they inhabit, but the O. pilicornis chiefly affects the common Bugle (Ajuga reptans), and they much frequent composite flowers, especially the species of the genus Hieracium.

Section 2. Cenobites (dwellers in community).

Subsection 1. Spurred.

† Parasitical.

Genus 25. Apathus, Newman.

(Plate XIV. figs. 1 and 2.)

Apis ** e 2 partly, Kirby.—Psithyrus, St. Fargeau.

Gen. Char.: Body subhirsute. Head subglobose; 303vertex broad, glabrous, with a deeply impressed cross upon its summit, in the centre of which the ocelli are placed in an almost straight line and contiguously; antennæ short, filiform, geniculated, the scape slightly curved, the basal joint of the flagellum subglobose, its second joint as long as the terminal one and subclavate, the rest short, subequal, but gradually increasing in length to the terminal one, which is laterally compressed; the face flat; clypeus transversely lunate but straight in front; labrum lunulate, tuberculated laterally; mandibles broad and obscurely bidentate; cibarial apparatus moderate; tongue twice the length of the labium, tapering from base to apex, where it terminates in a small knob, and is clothed with short hair; paraglossæ obsolete; labial palpi as long as the tongue, the two first joints long and membranous and tapering to the apex of the second, which is acute, and about one-fourth the length of the first, it has the two very short, subclavate, terminal joints, which are conterminous, and articulated just before its acute apex; maxillæ subhastate and acuminate; maxillary palpi very short, linear, and equal. Thorax globose, pubescent, concealing its divisions; metathorax truncated; wings with three submarginal cells nearly equal, or the third the largest, the second receiving the first recurrent nervure at about one-third its length, and the second is received by the third submarginal cell near its extremity; legs setose; the posterior tibiæ convex, very slightly enlarging from base to apex, rounded at the extremity externally, and unfurnished with means to convey pollen; posterior plantæ oblong, narrowly equal, and not auriculated; claws bifid. Abdomen ovate, convex above, deflecting toward its extremity, and subglabrous on the disk, the terminal 304dorsal segment triangular, and its ventral plate straight at its apex with the lateral angles reflected, making it concave beneath and subcarinated longitudinally in the centre, or also triangular and the sides of the prominent angle deflected.

The MALE differs in having the antennæ slightly longer, in being rather more pubescent, more highly and rather differently coloured, and its terminal segment merely rounded.

NATIVE SPECIES.

3. campestris, Panzer, ♂ ♀. 6-9 lines. (Plate XIV. fig. 2. The fig. marked ♂ by mistake for ♀.)

campestris, Kirby, ♀.

Rossiella, Kirby, ♂.

Leeana, Kirby.

Franciscana, Kirby.

subterranea, Kirby.

2. Barbutellus, Kirby, ♂ ♀. 6-9 lines.

3. vestalis, Fourcroy, ♂ ♀. 6-10 lines. (Plate XIV. fig. 2 ♀.)

vestalis, Kirby, ♀.

4. rupestris, Fabricius, ♂ ♀. 6-10 lines. (Plate XIV. fig. 1 ♂ ♀.)

albinella, Kirby, ♂.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Named from α, privative, πάθος, affection; that is to say, without affection, from their habit of leaving their young to be nurtured by others, in allusion to their parasitical instincts, for the young of these bees are brought up in the nests of the Bombi. They form the only instance in bee-parasitism of the parasite 305closely, or nearly so, resembling its sitos, if not always in colour, certainly in habit. Having no labours to undergo they consist of merely males and females, but the latter, although very like the large female Bombi, are much less pubescent than these, for they have a broad disk, upon the upper surface of the abdomen, always smooth and shining. Both sexes appear to have free in- and egress to the nests of those Bombi which they infest, without any let or hindrance on the part of the latter, with whom they seem to dwell in perfect amity. In the times of their appearance they closely resemble the Halicti and the neighbouring Bombi. Thus the females, after impregnation in the autumn, having hibernated during the winter in selected receptacles, come out with the first gleams of spring conjunctively with the large maternal Bombi, in whose nests they have taken their long repose in perfect torpidity; and as soon as these begin to accumulate the masses of conglomerated honey and pollen whereon to deposit their eggs, the parasite takes advantage of it, lays her eggs too, and thus secures food for her offspring. There being two broods of them in the year, many are gradually developed with the advance of summer, but the great hatching takes place in the autumn, when the thistles are in blossom. Then both males and females come forth in abundance, the latter are made fertile, and their partners enjoy the brief interval of the still blossoming flowers until the usual period is put to their existence by natural decay, the first frosts, or the rapacity of insectivorous birds. Connected with this last circumstance I have a personal experience to record, and which its repetition would indicate as being one of Nature’s prompting acts. A lofty sandy level, very near the high-road which leads 306at the upper part of Hampstead Heath, to Highgate, from which road it was separated by merely a band of whins and coarse grass, used to be a very favourite collecting place of mine, for there, and in its immediate vicinity, I have often caught, within a very brief period, more than half the genera, and a very large number of the species of the fossorial Hymenoptera. One particular little spot was inhabited by Psen equestris, rare everywhere else, and our largest Cerceris, who carried on their instinctive pursuits during all the summer months, but at a particular time in the autumn, varying slightly with the nature of the season, a flock of wagtails (Motacilla) would alight and make brief work of those fossores which were still aflight; and this was repeated season after season, as if the wagtails thought it was time that their own rapacity should stop the course of these predacious insects. But to return, the female Apathi then resort to the nests of the Bombi whence they have issued, and lay themselves up in their winter dormitory. That this must take place speedily after impregnation is rendered almost conclusive by the fine state in which their pubescence appears in the spring, which would be tarnished did they loiter about visiting flowers previous to their return home. But the labours of the female and neuter Bombi themselves are now over, and they would therefore find no store whereon to deposit their eggs. The parasitical allocation of these insects is as follows. Apathus rupestris infests Bombus lapidarius; A. vestalis the B. terrestris, and this forms an instance in which the parasite is not clothed in the colours of its sitos. But A. Barbutellus has a wide range, for it frequents the nests of B. pratorum, B. Derhamellus, and B. Skrimshiranus.