222 The Scottish Naturalist. 



I must, now however, pass on to the next part of our subject, 

 though much more might be said of the doings of the hill-ant, — 

 the colonies it founds, the aphides it milks, and the recreations 

 and amusements it indulges in, are they not all chronicled by 

 Kirby and Spence ; and to these authors' works I refer those 

 who may feel inclined to learn more. 



Formica rufa (or F conger ens, or both) is not uncommon in 

 many places in wooded parts of the north of Scotland. It does 

 not appear to occur (in Scotland) south of a line beginning at 

 Arran in the south-west, and thence passing in a north-easterly 

 direction along the line of the Grampians, through Ben Lomond, 

 Dunkeld, and Deeside, and reaching the east-coast probably 

 somewhere in Aberdeenshire. F. congerens is closely allied to 

 F. rufa, and is a species of northern Europe. It constructs 

 similar nests, and has been noticed in Rannoch and elsewhere. 



(To be continued). 



Megachile centuncularis.— This bee is not uncommon in many parts of 

 Scotland, and is met with not unfrequently in and about St. Andrews. It ap- 

 pears to vary considerably in number : some years it is plentiful, in others rather 

 scarce. When these leaf-cutting bees are numerous, they soon make their pre- 

 sence known, by the peculiar and unmistakeable way in which they cut semicir- 

 cular pieces of different sizes out of the leaves, chiefly of rose bushes, which they 

 carry off to line their nests with. To these leaves it has generally been con- 

 sidered that they manifested a decided partiality, although not at all times confin* 

 ing themselves too closely to any particular plant, adopting their habits in this re- 

 spect to their surroundings. Still it has been the leaves of plants and not the 

 flowers they have been in the practice of using for this purpose. Last autumn, 

 however some of the bees in this quarter seem to have abandoned their usual cus- 

 tom in this matter. My brother, Mr. T Walker, who has a small garden and a 

 greenhouse with a southern exposure, was somewhat surprised and not a little 

 annoyed to see that a number of semicircular pieces had been cut out of the 

 petals of some of his best geraniums. A little watching soon discovered the 

 depredators at work, when a few of them were caught in the act of making off 

 with their spoil. The bees began the attack, at first, by cutting the petals of 

 some plain -coloured plants standing outside ; some of these seem not to have 

 pleased their fancy, for after cutting some pieces out they were sometimes left 

 hanging by the extreme edge. After this they found their way inside the 

 greenhouse, where there was a considerable variety of plants with flowers of 

 many shades of colour to choose from ; they nevertheless invariably ■ selected 

 those of the brightest kind, preferring the scarlet petals, mainly, of geraniums 

 to all others. Out of these they cut very neat semicircular pieces, and carried 

 them off to line their nests with. So quickly was this operation performed, that 

 a bee could be seen to alight on the edge of a flower, and have the piece cut 

 out and taken away before a person standing a few yards distant could be in 



