vi] LONG-POINTED-TONGUED BEES 85 



I saw no other specimens during several hours spent 

 on the same heath that day. 



Of the remaining genus of " hairy-bellied " bees, 

 Anthidium,v?e have only one species, A. manicatum, 

 the wool-carder bee, in this country. It is a striking 

 looking insect, about three-quarters of an inch long 

 (the male being larger than the female), and is black 

 with conspicuous yellow spots, so as to appear rather 

 wasp-like. It is, however, a stoutly built bee, with 

 blunt hinder extremity, that of the male being 

 armed with five strong "teeth." This bee is on 

 the wing in June, July and August: it uses many 

 different sites for nesting, e.g. deserted burrows made 

 by other insects, door-locks, empty snail-shells, and so 

 on. Smith states that it has never been known to 

 make a burrow of its own ; this may be so, but inas- 

 much as I found one nesting under the slates of an 

 outhouse which was in process of being roofed, it is 

 evident that it does select new nesting sites some- 

 times. The nest is like a ball of white wool with 

 waxy cells within it. This " wool ' is obtained from 

 hairy plants, especially the purple dead-nettle ; but 

 I have known the bee to avail itself of a boy's 

 "sweater" left hanging in a school pavilion. It is of 

 this bee that Gilbert White, in his History of Sel- 

 borne, writes : "There is a sort of wild bee frequenting 

 the garden-campion for the sake of its tomentum, 

 which probably it turns to some purpose in the 



