vi] LONG-POINTED-TONGUED BEES ?5 



joints of the middle pair of legs : he seldom settles, 

 but flies about in attendance on a female, often 

 chasing her, or appearing to join in a wild game of 

 " catch-as-catch-can ' with one or two other males. 

 These bees make their nests in firm banks of sand 

 or clay, if not too wet ; their burrows do not extend 

 very deep and contain one or more cells whose outer 

 wall is made very hard by a cement of sand or clay 

 applied by the female bee after she has completed 

 the commissariat arrangements. Numbers of Antlio- 

 phora often live in the same bank ; and on a warm 

 April morning the scene at such a spot is most lively: 

 females are to be seen entering or leaving their bur- 

 rows, intent on their business, or possibly engaged in 

 a headlong flirtation with two or three males to and 

 fro in front of the favoured bank, while dozens of 

 males keep up a loud humming as they dash through 

 the air. 



If one of these colonies of Anthophora pilipes 

 be found, another bee is also certain to be present 

 playing "cuckoo" upon the legitimate tenants of the 

 burrows. This parasite is named Melecta armata: 

 it is nearly as long as its " host," but very different 

 in appearance, being nearly black with white spots 

 on the sides of the abdomen, much less hairy, and 

 far more sharply pointed at its hinder end. Anato- 

 mically, however, in the arrangement of the mouth 

 parts and of the male sex-organs it is closely allied 



