TirE CUCKOO BEE. 37 



hues, which lives a parasitic life on its hosts. This parasitism 

 does not go far enough to cause the death of the host, since we 

 find the young of the parasitic Cu«koo bee, in cells containing 

 the young of the former. 



Mr. F. Smith, in his "Catalogue of British Bees," says of this 

 genus : "No one appears to know anything beyond the mere 

 fact of their entering the burrows of Andrenidaj and Apidae, 

 except that they are found in the cells of the working bees in 

 their perfect condition : it is most probable that they deposit 

 their eggs on the provision laid up by the working bee, that 

 they close up the cell, and that the working bee, finding an egg 

 deposited, commences a fresh cell for her own progenj'." 



He has, however, found two specimens of Nomada sexfasciata 

 in the cells of the long-horned bee, Eucera lougicornis. He 

 also states, that whUe some species are constant in their attacks 

 on certain Halicti and Andren^, others attack different species 

 of these genera indiscriminately. In like manner another 

 Cuckoo bee (Coelioxys) is parasitic on Megachile and Saropoda; 

 Stelis is a parasite on Osmia, the Mason bee : and Melecta 

 infests the cells of Anthophora. 



The observations of Mr. Emerton enable us still further to 

 clear up the history of this obscure visitor. He found both the 

 laiwa and pupa, as well as the perfect bee, in the cells of both 

 genera ; so that either both kinds of bee, when hatched from 

 eggs laid in the same cell, feed on the same pollen mass, which 

 therefore barely suffices for the nourishment of both ; or the 

 hostess, discovering the strange egg laid, cuckoo-like, in her 

 own nest, has the forethought to deposit another ball of pollen 

 to secure the safety of her young. 



Is such an act the operation of a blind instinct? Does it not 

 rather ally our little bee with those higher animals which 

 undoubtedly possess a reasoning power? Its instinct teaches it 

 to build cells, and prepare its pollen mass, and lay an egg 

 thereon. Its reason enables it, in such an instance as this, 

 when the life of the brood is threatened, to guard against any 

 such danger by means to which it does not habitually resort. 

 This instance is paralleled by the case of our common summer 

 Yellow bird, which, on finding an egg of the Cow bunting in its 

 nest, often builds a new nest above it, to the certain destruc- 

 tion of the unwelcome egg in the nest beneath. 



In the structure of the bee, and in all its stages of growth, 

 i 



