These bees, with several others, are supposed to be parasitic, 

 but nothing I believe is known of their economy. I have fre- 

 quently dug them out of the earth, late in the year, in a dead 

 state : they were buried very deep, the holes being made on 

 the perpendicular side of a cliff, and the galleries ran horizon- 

 tally, but whether they were formed by themselves or they had 

 merely taken possession of them, I could not ascertain. 



The males of Coelioxys and Anthidium (pi. 61.) are distin- 

 guished by the denticulated apex of their abdomens, and the 

 cleft and gaping ones of the females are peculiar I believe to 

 our genus and to Epeolus. 



I suspect there are several species of this genus in Europe, 

 but only two have been discovered in this country. 



1. C. conica Lhm. Panz. 55. 13. mas. — 4-punctata imw. Fab. 



Panz. 59. l.fem. 



Male black, clothed with soft yellowish cinereous hairs; 

 head and thorax very thickly and strongly punctured, the 

 former sometimes with the pubescence of the face ochreous : 

 abdomen more glossy, and finely punctured, and less pubes- 

 cent, with a scale on each side at the base fringed with white, 

 the margins of the other annulations fringed all round with 

 white, excepting down the back where they are interrupted or 

 meet in a point; penultimate joint with the angles acuminated, 

 the apex notched semicircularly (7*). Female with the basal 

 tuft of cinereous pubescence larger, the white fringe very nar- 

 row and not interrupted down the back ; apex acute, the lower 

 valve twice as long as the upper one (6*). 



Inhabits flowers, and is not uncommon the end of June and 

 beginning of July. 



2. C. inermis Kirhy Mon. 2. 229. 38. t. 16. f. 8. mas. 

 Black, scutellum unarmed : abdomen of the male linear, 



margins of 4 of the segments white, interrupted above, con- 

 tinued beneath : apex with several spines. Kirby. 



This is supposed to be a variety of the former, and was 

 taken at Brentford by Mr. J. Trimmer. 



3. C. Vectis Curtis' s Brit. Ent. pi. S'^Q.fem. 



This species is not only twice the size of C. conica, but the 

 penultimate joint of the abdomen in the male has not the an- 

 gles acuminated, the apex is notched more acutely, yet the 

 lobes are more obtuse, and the inferior spines are longer. In 

 the female the upper valve is curved, the lower one much 

 shorter, straight, and less acuminated. 



I took several the beginning of August, on flowers near 

 Ventnor, and, flying about heath and pathways, at Black-gang 

 Chine in the Isle of Wight. 



The plant is Arenaria media Linn,, marina Fl. Dan. (Sea 

 Sj)urrey Sandwort). 



