160 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



OSMIA PARIETINA, Curt. 



In September 1898, when searching for Coleoptera on 

 a hillside near Blair Atholl, Perthshire, I discovered, at an 

 elevation of 1000 to 1300 feet, several clusters of bee-cells 

 or cocoons attached to the under sides of stones. One 

 stone had about 50 on it. About half of the cocoons were 

 open and empty, the occupants having emerged ; but many 

 were still closed, and on opening a couple I found in each, 

 in a torpid state, a small reddish bee, which Mr. Edward 

 Saunders has since identified for me as the rare Osmia 

 parietina of Curtis, a species which has not been recorded 

 from any part of Britain for many years. From some 

 cocoons which I brought home with me a dozen bees of both 

 sexes, but all dead, and two living Chrysids apparently 

 Ckrysis hirsuta, Gerst. were extracted this spring. O. 

 parietina was first taken by Curtis about seventy years ago 

 at Ambleside, on the banks of Windermere, in Westmore- 

 land. In November I 849, a flat stone, having on its under 

 side 230 cocoons, was next discovered at Glen Almond, 

 Perthshire, and sent to the British Museum. When found, 

 about one-third of the cocoons were empty, and from the 

 others perfect insects appeared at intervals during the spring 

 and summer of the following year, while a few remained 

 over till June 1852 (Smith's "Cat. Brit. Hymenoptera in 

 Brit. Mus.," 2nd ed., 1876, p. 150). The species has also 

 been captured at Rannoch (prior to 1855) and in Wales. 



NOMADA BOREALIS, Zett. 



On 26th April 1897 I found this species common on 

 a bank beside a footpath near Dollar, Clackmannanshire, 

 where there was a colony of Andrena clarkella, upon which 

 it is parasitic. In England it seems to be widely distributed, 

 though usually rare, but I am not aware of any previous 

 record for Scotland. Mr. Saunders, who has seen one of 

 my specimens, predicted its occurrence, however, in his 

 recent work on the Hymenoptera Aculeata of the British 

 Islands. 



