With the Wild Bees in Glencidlen. 6i 



we shall find several masses of wax, very much resembling 

 the queen-cells of the Hive-Bee, containing young grubs and 

 bee-bread, or kneaded lumps of pollen and honey. These are 

 the work of the queen-mother, the foundress of the colony, 

 in the early .spring days. According as the grubs grow to 

 maturity they spin up the egg-shaped cocoons we first noticed, 

 wherein they undergo their changes, first into nymphs, after- 

 wards into perfect bees. The empty cocoons are then 

 strengthened by the workers with a rim of wax and used as 

 store-pots for hone3^ The older writers on bees, such as 

 Kirby, state that the latter is never stored by an}^ of our wild . 

 bees in regular cells like those of the hive-bee ; but I have 

 found, as we shall probably here find, in the nests of the 

 I^apidary or Red-tailed Humble-bee, several roughly- shaped 

 hexagonal cells of brown wax, partly sealed, and filled with 

 honey. The queens and workers of the latter bee are very 

 common objects at this time ; later in the season we shall meet 

 with the males. Other humble-bees are in evidence, especially 

 the White-tail, ^^?;/ ^2^^ terrestris; an allied species, B. hortonim; 

 and we ma}'' meet a specimen of the less common B. sylvaiimi. 



There are other bees here too, in numbers on bramble 

 flowers and white-thorn, or flying up and down the faces of 

 the cla}^ banks. These are various members of the large 

 genus Andi'ena, which, like the bulk of our wild bees, are 

 " solitary " in their habits, and consi.st of two kinds of in- 

 dividuals only, males and females ; or as we may put it, 

 drones and workers, the untiring industry of the female 

 being a characteristic feature of all the stinging Hymenoptera. 

 The lad}^ Andrena constructs a tunnel or burrow in the face 

 of a bank to a depth, varying with different species, of from 

 eight to fourteen inches. These burrows are seldom straight, 

 and often branch out into subsidiary tunnels. At the end of 

 each the mother-bee places a ball of pollen and an q.%%. 

 She then closes the burrow with a pellet of clay to prevent 

 the invasion of ants and predacious beetles. 



The members of this genus we shall most likely meet are 



Andreyia Trimmerana, A. albicans, A. helvola, A. Wilkella 



(easily known even on the wing by its silvery pile), A. 



Gzvynana, A.viimitnla, and perhaps, though I have not taken 



it in GlencuUen, the handsome A, cineraria, 



A3 



