shining black, with on the second segment, and a very

side of the base, another spot on each side of the third and fourth segments.

small white

In some specimens the white spots do not appear, so that the

insect is entirely black. Both sexes are coloured much in the

same manner, with the exception that the whole of the downy

clothing has a slight yellowish tinge.

This is a parasitic insect, laying its eggs in the nest of one of the burrowing bees, named Anthophora acervorum. This Bee makes its nest in the holes of old walls, chalk-pits, and similar localities, and is a very common insect, absolutely swarming in some localities. It is subject to the attacks of three other insects, which are the common Earwig, the Firetailfly, already described on page 330, and the Melecta, the two Hymenopterous foes being often seen at once engaged in their destructive work. The Melecta is, however, itself much infested with the larvas of the Oil-beetle, which may be found clinging to the under side of the thorax.

At Fig. 4, Woodcut XXXVI. is shown an example of one of our most interesting groups of wild Bees, named scientifically Osviia Tufa. The specimen is a female. In this genus the upper wings have one marginal and two submarginal cells. The ocelli are set in a slight curve on the crown of the head.

The present species is black and hairy. The head of the female is provided with a sort of horn on either side of the face, the ends of the horns being slightly bent inwards. The down on the middle or disc of the thorax is black, becoming dun towards the base, while on the sides and beneath it is ashen grey. The male has no horns on the head, and the face is covered with long white down. The antennae are long and slender, and the head and thorax, instead of being black, are deep green-blue. The abdomen is covered with thick down arranged in successive bands or belts. yellowish

I mentioned just now that this insect belongs to one of our most interesting groups of Bees. It has always interested me greatly on account of the curious nests which it makes. Generally, one species adheres strictly to one kind of locality' but this is not the case with the Osmia, which adapts its cells to various localities, according to the exigencies of the moment. There are ten species of Osmia, each having some particular point of interest attached to its mode of nestin»-.

Take, for example, Osmia hicolor. This insect generally makes its cell within the empty shells of garden snails, not it is unable to make a burrow, but because it finds the because empty shells to be as good as ready-made burrows. So it begins an egg at the end of the whorl, putting in a sufby depositing and pollen, and making a partition wall of ficiency of honey A second chamber is then formed in some vegetable substance. and so on until the Bee has reached the mouth of like manner, the shell, which it closes with a strong barrier. is in the British Museum a very curious example of

There Bee, showing clearly that the insect possesses sagacity in this powers as well as mere instinct. She some share of reasoning of the large garden snail, and when she came had taken the shell found that it was much too large. So, instead near the mouth, usual fashion, she has made two cells of proceeding after the side by side, and close to the mouth itself and placed them has actually set the cells crosswise. into the air, it is necessary for the

As, in order to emerge of the lower cells to pass through the others, this inhaMtants manner. Those eggs which necessity is met in a very simple cells produce males, and are develope are laid in the outermost insects which inhabit the cells before the others, so that those them can pass through their deserted immediately beneath

leucomelana, burrows in bramble- ^°Another species, Oamia whole of the pith, but scraping out a sticks, not taking out the are connected by small passages, so series of chambers, which of division take but little material. that the walls makes its burrows in

Another species, Osmia ftdviventris, another, Osmia parietana-a northern decaying wood; while of stones. Theie is in ^ species- chooses the under surface ten inches by six, on which British Museum a stone, measuring and thirty cells of ^ee Mi. are no less than two hundred mass of cells, and found that the F. Smith took charge of this during three years. Bees escaped at intervals The following year a one-third were developed. a thud. In the . and while in my possession came forth, was subject to the instance, the whole deposit

had produced larv^ ; what was the cause ^ and it were vain to attempt to dctei of the rest, development

To the next genus belong tliose curious Bees which are popxilarly called Leaf-cutter Bees, because they line their burrows with pieces of various leaves, tliose of the rose being the favourites. They burrow in various materials, and sometimes the same species makes its tunnels in decaying wood or in sandstone. The species which is shown on Woodcut XXXVI. Fig. 5, Megachile contuncularis, sometimes burrows in decaying wood, sometimes in old walls, and sometimes in the ground.

In this genus the head is large, and the ocelli are set in a triangle on the crown. The upper wings have one marginal and two submarginal cells, and the females have a very thick pollen-brush on the abdomen. This species, which is very plentiful, is black, with ashen grey down, becoming yellowish on the face. The disc of the thorax is nearly naked. The abdomen is heart-shaped in the female, and longer and blunter in the male, and each segment has a very narrow edging of pale yellow down. Beneath, the down is bright golden yellow. It must here be remarked that these colours are only to be found in specimens recently escaped from the pupal cell, the beautiful hues fading by exposure.

On Woodcut XXXVII. Fig. 1, is a rather magnified figure of the insect called by Gilbert White the Hoop-shaver Bee, fiom a habit which will be presently described. In this genus, of which only one species is known to inhabit England, the head is nearly as wide as the thorax, and the ocelli are set in a triangular form rather forward on the crown. The upper wings have one marginal and two submarginal cells, and the abdomen IS rather cxirved, and furnished in the female with a thick pollenbrush, and in the male with spikes at the end, as seen in the illustration. The present species has five of these spines. Its colour is exceedingly variable in detail, but is generally black with yellow on the sides of the face and the clypeus. The abdomen has a yellow spot on either side of each segment.

The Bee is a burrower in the decayed wood of willowtrees, but, if possible, she will take advantage of the deserted burrows of the Goat-moth, which will be described in the following pages. In order to prepare a home for its future youno- It goes to some down-covered plant, such as the campion and strips off the woolly covering, running along the stem,’ and

shaving it quite bare. It then collects the bundle of do\vn between its liead and fore-legs, carries it off' to the burrow, and with it makes a cocoon-like cell, binding together the fibres of down with some kind of glutinous material. Within this cell it places an egg and a quantity of pollen sufficient to last the young grub throughout its larval condition. When

Anthidinm manioatura. 2. Bombus lapidarius, female. 3. Do., neutep 4. Do., male. a. Tongue of Anthidinm. 6. Tongue of Bombus. c. Mandible of Anthidinm.

the larva spins within its cell a silken cocoon, from full-fed, which it emerges in its perfect state somewhere about Midsummer. Bee presents one very remarkable point of difference

This in general, the male being as much larger than

from insects as the female is usually larger than the male. The

tlie female one, especially towards the south of

species is quite a common

England.

The Bee wlucli occupies the centre of Plate XII. well

deserves its names of Eucera longicornis. The former of

these two names is Greek, and signifies ‘ beautiful horns,’

while the latter is Latin, and signifies ‘ long-horned.’ Both

titles are given to the insect on account of the great length of the antenna3 of the male, which are as long as the head, thorax, and body together. These antennae are very remarkable when viewed through the microscope, the joints being covered -with honeycomb-like markings, as if a net with sixsided meshes had been drawn over them. The ocelli are set in a slight curve on the crown of the head, and the upper wings have one marginal and two submarginal cells.

Only one species is known in England. It is black, clothed with a dun-colom-ed down, changing to very pale yellow on the sides, and ashen grey beneath.

This is one of the burrowing Bees, preferring a hard, clay soil for that purpose. It needs no lining for the cells, but kneads the clay wall of its cell so hard and smooth that it is able to hold the soft paste of pollen and honey with which it is stored. Some of the habits of this insect have been mentioned when treating of the Firetailed-fly (p. 331). Mr. F. Smith has the following remarks on this Bee : ‘It does not spin a cocoon, but passes the winter in the larva state, changing about the end of April to the pupa, and shortly after arriving at its perfect condition. The pupa throws off a thin, transparent shroud. The male, on emerging from its cell, passes its long antennae through the notch at the base of the first joint of the anterior tarsus, drawing the antennae through, and thus readily divests those organs of the thin pellicle in which they are enveloped. Here we see another beautiful exemplification of the truth that “ nothing is made in vain.” The long antennae of the males of this genus are doubtless adapted to some peculiar phase in their economy, and the remarkable hexagonal reticulation of the joints also answers some pm-pose connected with a peculiar sense the exact functions of which we are unable to appreciate.’

This is not a rare insect, but in some localities is much more plentiful than in others, forming large colonies, and almost honeycombing the earth with its burrows.

CHAPTER V.

The Social Bees may be roughly divided into two groups, the Wild Bees and the Domesticated Bees. I use the latter terms intentionally in the pliu'al number, because there are species of Domesticated Bees, two of which are cultiseveral vated in this country. We will begin with the Wild Social known as Humble Bees, Hummel Bees, or Bees, popularly Dumble Bees, the popular name evidently referring to the sound which they produce when on the wing. deep humming In this country the greater part of them constitute one genus, of which we will take some of the most namely Bombus, insects as examples of the rest. conspicuous

In this genus of Bees, the body is egg-shaped, and^ thickly with hair. The head is somewhat triangular in form, covered are slender, elbowed, and a little longer and the antennae On the crown there is a semilunar groove or than the head. in which the ocelH are placed. The mandibles are impression, and their tips are rounded and grooved. The upper stout, one marginal and three submarginal cells. The wings have on the tibia of the hind legs a thick fringe of females have forms a sort of basket for carrying the stiff hairs, which the young are fed. This apparatus is pollen with which corhicula, or little basket. In the scientifically termed the with curled hair, and there males, the mandibles are fringed on the hind legs. are no pollen-baskets of these Bees is at once interesting, simple, and

Page 65 of 117

CHAPTER V.

Social Bees.