34 [February, 



rapid and jerky in its flight, turns more suddenly and sits down with 

 less deliberation ; a $ Andrenn is silent in its flight, flies steadily, 

 settles down composedly and generally shows a lot of yellowish or 

 whitish pollen on its legs, or, if fresh from the burrow^, the yellow 

 hairs of the tibise in many species will betray them, 'i'he ^ Andrenas 

 rarely settle, but fly round the branches, often near the tops, which 

 renders them very difficult to capture ; they are much slimmer insects 

 than the females and may generally be known by their almost incessant 

 and steady, though rapid, flight. Diptera of the same size are usually 

 sure to settle before long, or to turn suddenly in their flight. 

 Eapidity in flight of course depends greatly on the temperature, on a 

 cold day the insects are far less lively than on a hot one, and it is 

 curious to observe the immediate disappearance of most of the 

 Aculeates the moment a cloud shadows the sallow and their rapid 

 re-appearance when it has passed. The earliest Andrenas to appear 

 are probably ClarJceUa, Gwynana^ apicata and albicans, but they are 

 rapidly followed by the rest of the spring species, prcBCOx, tibialis, 

 minutula, nifjrocenea, roses, race Trimmeraiia, apicata, bimaculata, 

 thoracica, piJipes, cineraria, nitida, fidva, helvoJa, varians, dorsata, 

 jijzeliella,f'ulvicrus,a\\ these frequent sallows, although some are local 

 and rare ; cineraria, for instance, though common in some localities, 

 has never occurred, so far as I know, in this neighbourhood, apicata, 

 bimaculata and dorsata are also local species. On the other hand, 

 Gwynana, albicans, Trimmerana, Glarlcella, tibialis and nigrocenea seem 

 to occur nearly everywhere, at least in the South of England ; the 

 males always precede the females a day or two in their appearance. 

 With the Andrenas a few Salicfi are often to be found, and usually a 

 few species of Nomada ; borealis is the first of this genus to appear, 

 being parasitic on A. ClarJceUa, inquilines are, however, found in 

 greater numbers round the burrows of the Andrenas, but these 

 burrows are not always easily found, when, however, they can be 

 discovered, the collector will learn more by watching the banks where 

 they occur than by collecting the insects off their food-plants, for 

 there he will find both sexes flying about together, their inquilines and 

 other pai'asites which belong to them, as well as those miserable 

 individuals which are so distorted by stylopization that they cannot 

 flv any distance ; luckily for their race, such specimens are rare, T 

 have, however, met with them on several occasions. Once, on the 

 "Croft" at Hastings, I found a specimen with four of these parasites 

 in it, which could scarcely do more than tumble about, its body being 

 inflated to nearly twice its usual bulk. I may here remark that it is 



