668 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



shining integuments more or less covered with hair. They are known 



as carpenter bees 

 from the habit of 

 some of them of bor- 

 ing into dry timber. 

 They will not touch 

 living wood nor will 

 they tunnel into rot- 

 ten wood. Sound 

 seasoned timber ap- 

 pears to be what they 

 prefer. They bore a 

 Pig. ib.—Xylooopa latipes. (India.) cylindrical tunnel in- 



to the wood from which 3 or 4 parallel galleries give off in which 

 broad cells are placed. These cells are always isolated by a partition 

 formed by cemented fragments of wood which are cut out by the bee. 

 Little is known about the life histories of our Indian species nor do we 

 know how many generations they pass through during the year. Xylo- 

 copa latipes depicted in Fig. 58 is a large blue and green Xyhcopa, 

 widely distributed throughout India and ranging down into China and 

 the Malayan Region. It tunnels into sal wood in the Bengal Duars 



Fig. 59. — Block of Padouk wood showing borings of X. latipes, 

 occasionally causing serious damage to the rafters of the tea factories 

 and other buildings, whilst others have been found boring into Padouk 

 in Calcutta (imported from Rangoon) and teak in Rangoon. 



