HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



l: 



A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT BEES. 



CAN quite endorse the opinion of your corre- 

 -*- spondent "J. B. B." as to bees being very 

 interesting creatures, and equally worthy of pa- 

 tient investigation as the more generally -studied 

 butterflies and moths. "With your permission I 

 will say a few words from personal observation on 

 the habits of the Anthoplwra, the Carder, and the 

 Leaf-cutter. 



The Anthoplwra is found in every garden. If you 

 see a glossy jet-black bee, of medium size, hovering 

 with quick and busy motion about your pet poly- 

 anthuses, and darting swiftly away as you approach, 

 you may prettly safely conclude that it is a female 

 Anthophora. Visit some old sand-pit or quarry in 

 June or July, and you may then see how this 

 " busy bee " provides for her young. One evening 

 in the latter month, noticing perforations in the 

 upper or earth part of a sand-pit cutting, and 

 numerous bees of different kinds passing in and out, 

 curiosity prompted me to open some of the holes. 

 This I accomplished by chipping off pieces of the 

 remarkably hard earth with my pocket-knife, and 

 soon laid open to view the economy of the Antho- 

 phora. The hardness of the earth, and the conse- 

 quent labour gone through by the bee in boring 

 into it, greatly surprised me. One individual was 

 busily at work in an adjoining hole, turning itself 

 round and round within the tunuel by the help of 

 its legs, and having done this for some time, stood 

 upright and pushed out the accumulated earth with 

 the lower part of its abdomen. On laying open the 

 face of the cutting, I found that each tunnel or 

 perforation made by the bees extended about two 

 inches into it, and ended in two cells of an oval 

 shape. These cells were substantially made of hard 

 earth, and must have caused the insects immense 

 labour to construct. They were smoothly lined 

 with a hard white gum or similar substance. The 

 cells of one tunuel contained a little, light, greenish, 

 unpleasant-odoured paste or honey, on which floated 

 a small white bee-maggot; another set of cells 

 showed the bee-maggots so far advanced as to 

 completely fill their allotted space ; another showed 

 the young Anthophora in the pupa state ; and 

 another exhibited the perfect bee, fully formed, 

 coloured, and ready for flight. Plying with a buzz 

 about the holes on the evening in question was 

 another insect much resembling the Anthophora. 

 Having procured specimens, I found it to be one of 

 the tribe of insect-cuckoos— a Melecta, which, like 

 its feathered prototype, makes no nest of its own, 

 but places its eggs in the cells of the Anthophora 

 when it can manage to do so unperceived. Where 

 the Anthophora occurs, there its parasite may like- 

 wise be found. 



The Carder Bee {Bombus museoruni) abounds in 

 every country lane, and may be easily recognized by 



its dull orange-coloured thorax, and by its predilec- 

 tion for the rich honey-yielding blossoms of the 

 white dead-nettle (Lamium album). The habits of 

 this bee are very interesting. Years ago, when 

 quite a boy, I made the acquaintance of the Car- 

 der. A favourite resort of mine then was a clump 

 of Scotch firs, beneath whose ample shade grew a 

 patch of peculiarly soft and luxuriant grass. One 

 day, seeing what looked like a ball of dried grass 

 lying under the trees, I picked it up, when a very 

 ominous hum sounded from beneath, and I took to 

 my heels with visions of smarts and blue-bags rising 

 before me. I had unconsciously disturbed the nest of 

 a Carder. Later on in the year, when the chills of 

 autumn had rendered the colony less active and 

 fierce, I ventured to uncover the nest again, and see 

 for myself the result of the summer's activity. 

 True there was little to be seen beyond a few 

 irregular-shaped masses of dark-brown cells, con- 

 taining a little honey — the Carder being a very 

 indifferent honey-gatherer and wax-worker. But 

 in the construction of its nest of withered grass or 

 moss it displays great adroitness. The nest is 

 raised dome-like above the level of the ground, and 

 is the work of a row of Carders, the foremost one of 

 the file taking a little grass or moss, carding it, and 

 passing it under its body to the next, who pushes 

 it in the same manner to its fellow behind. The tiny 

 bundle of moss thus goes from one to another, till 

 it reaches the nest at the end of the file. Prom its 

 using moss in the construction of its nest, the 

 Carder is often appropriately called the Moss Bee. 

 It is one of the humble bees. 



Most insect-admirers, even those who make no 

 pretence to be considered entomologists, have heard 

 of the Leaf-cutter Bee {Megachile), and the mathe- 

 matical precision with which it cuts its circles and 

 semicircles from rose and other leaves. In June, 

 1874, I noticed a rose-bush {Rosa cani/ia),—by the 

 way, I have met with the curious thorny gall 

 (Ehoditis rosarum) on this bush at Tubney, Berks, 

 — which had evidently been most extensively visited 

 by Leaf-cutters, the greater number of the leaves 

 being mutilated in the most exact and beautiful 

 maimer. A few days before this I had had the 

 pleasure of seeing the Leaf-cutter transporting her 

 materials to their destination. A certain sunny 

 bank near a wood is frequented by immense num- 

 bers of insects, particularly sand-wasps (Ammophila 

 sabulosa) and the numerous species of mining-bees. 

 While watching the buzzing hosts, I noticed a bee 

 fly to the bank, carrying a leaf between its legs 

 under its abdomen, and soon after saw three others 

 carrying leaves in a similar fashion. Each alighted 

 on the bank, and after trying two or three of the 

 holes with which the bank was tunnelled, entered 

 one, which was about large enough to admit an 

 ordinary-sized black-lead pencil. I managed to 

 secure one of the carefullv-carried leaves. It was 



