50 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOS SIP. 



pate mandibles ; and when held in the fingers work 

 their bodies about as if they meant stinging; but it 

 is only the females and neuters tbat are furnished 

 with that weapon. The males also differ in having 

 thirteen joints to the antennae, whereas the female 

 has only twelve : the latter generally has that 

 member sub-clavate and geniculated, the former 

 usually more or less filiform ; the male has seven 

 segments in the abdomen, the female has six, and 

 in one genus only (Anthidium) is smaller than the 

 male. 



They are separated into two great divisions; in the 

 first of these the tongue has two folds, and in the 

 other three ; the former are called Andrenidce, or 

 short-tongued ; the latter Apida, or true bees. The 

 Andrenida are again obtuse and acute-tongued. 

 There are two genera of the obtuse tongues, one of 

 which {Colletes) bores its tunnels into the earth, dry 

 banks or walls, and the other (Prosopis), a small 

 black bee, bores iuto dead branches of brambles and 

 rose-trees — in fact, in any ready-made hole, or into 

 dry banks. The hole being made or provided, they 

 construct a cell, like a thimble in form, by lining the 

 bottom of the hole with a secretion from the mouth, 

 which dries and looks like gold-beaters' skin. 

 Having collected sufficient honey and pollen, which 

 is placed at the bottom of the cell, the insect lays 

 an egg on the mass, closes the mouth of the cell and 

 proceeds to form a fresh one, joining to that already 

 made. In this way she makes several of these 

 cells, and then closes the mouth of the burrow, if in 

 the earth, with soil. The obtuse tongue of these 

 bees seems admirably adapted to plaster the ceils 

 with the secretion. 



I once found a nest of the smaller genus (Prosopis), 

 in which the insect had either forgotten to lay its 

 egg or the egg had died, for at the bottom of the 

 cell was the collected mass of honey and pollen, 

 which under the microscope revealed the fact that 

 the insect had formed it into small pellets, had 

 covered each with the same secretion the cells were 

 made of, and then packed them carefully in. This 

 was very interesting, as the bee is almost entirely 

 destitute of hirsuties, but yet is not a cuckoo-bee. 

 The remaining genera of this division are, in the 

 manner of forming their nest and provisioning it, 

 very much alike. They form a burrow in the earth, 

 some preferring hard trodden pathways, others light 

 banks, into which they tunnel from a few to about 

 fourteen or fifteen inches ; they then make a gallery 

 collect honey and pollen, lay an egg, form another 

 gallery, and so on until a sufficient number of eggs 

 are deposited. One genus {Halirtus), in the female, 

 presents the appearance of having a vertical slit on 

 the upper part of the tail, surrounded by short 

 pubescence ; the males are in form cylindrical, with 

 long antennae, and may be found generally in the 

 autumn on dandelions and flowers of that kind. It 

 is only in the autumn these males are hatched a few 



days before the females ; the former die, the latter 

 hybernate: in the spring they come forth and com- 

 mence their work of laying eggs, and providing for 

 them when hatched. The duration of the life of 

 these solitary bees is about two months, exclusive of 

 the time they are hybernating, or at least that is 

 about the time a species lasts. The only other 

 genus I need mention of this division is the large 

 one of Andrew, those which in the female have the 

 curled lock on the hinder leg. There are between 

 sixty and seventy of them, varying greatly in size 

 and colouring. Of these the males and females are 

 seen about together at the same time, and do not 

 hybernate. They are represented, from the very 

 first fine warm day in spring till late autumn, by a 

 succession of species. All these bees are solitary, 

 each pair having a separate burrow formed by the 

 female ; but often they are gregarious, and may be 

 found in colonies. Being solitary, there are only two 

 sexes, and not three, as in the social ones (the 

 Bumble and Hive bees). 



Most flowers are frequented by bees for their 

 sweets; in fact those sweets may have been so 

 placed that the bee in rifling them should greatly 

 assist nature in disseminating the pollen from one 

 flower to another. The front part of the head of 

 most of them has a tuft of pubescence more or less 

 dense, which is admirably adapted to brush the 

 pollen off one, and on to another. It is said, but 

 I know not with what truth, that a bee gathering 

 pollen collects but from one description of plant at 

 a time, thus preventing the chance of hybridization. 

 I have indeed observed on the belly of the Leaf- 

 cutters, pollen sometimes pink, sometimes dirty 

 yellowish- white, and sometimes a deep yellow; but 

 I have never seen it mixed. The Apidce, true or 

 long-tongued bees, are the more interesting of the 

 two divisions, the economy of these displaying a 

 much higher standard of instinct than the others, if 

 it be not a species of reason. The Cuckoo-bees are 

 almost the first on the list : one large genus of these 

 (Nomada) are called Wasp-bees, from their great re- 

 semblance to those insects ; but the tongue proves 

 them not to be wasps, but bees. They are very 

 handsome insects, and are variegated with black, 

 red, yellow, or, white. It is a constant peculiarity 

 that while all the females have red noses, all the 

 males have yellow ones. Many of them of both 

 sexes, on being handled, emit a very pleasant and 

 powerful scent: it is not, however, confined to 

 this genus, but is possessed by many others, chiefly 

 the males. They may generallybe observed, especially 

 in the spring, flying about dry banks, in search of 

 the nest of some constructive bee, in which, when 

 found, should sufficient food have been already 

 stored by the proprietress, the bee lays its egg; if 

 not, it looks for another, or will wait until this has 

 been done : the parasite being rather smaller than its 

 " sitos," less is needed. When the parent bee comes 



