246 [November, 



HINTS ON COLLECTING ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA. 



BY EDWARD SAUNDERS, F. L. S. 



{Concluded from page 180). 



In the last part of my notes I mentioned Rophites as having been 

 taken by Mr. Bloomfield in his garden at Guestling ; this is incorrect, 

 as it was captured in the wood near his house on Centaurea nigra ; 

 how I got it into my head that it was taken in his garden I do not 

 know, but I am glad to be undeceived, as I always felt a little doubt- 

 ful as to whether it might not have been introduced somehow with 

 some foreign plant. In the locality where it occurred, which I know 

 personally well, any chance of importation from abroad is almost 

 precluded. 



The species of Megachile are to be found throughout the summer, 

 the earliest appearing about the beginning of June, although July is 

 probably the best month for them. They seem chiefly to frequent 

 thistles and bramble flowers, but I have found versicolor visiting Lotus 

 corniculatus in some numbers ; this was in the very early season of 

 1893, when the hot weather had no doubt tempted them out before 

 either brambles or thistles were in good flower, and later in the year I 

 have found it on thistles. M. argentata occurs as a rule near the coast, 

 and as it lines its burrows with the petals of Lotus it probably visits 

 that flower also for pollen. There is only one very rare species of this 

 genus in Britain, viz., M. ericetorum ; this has not occurred since 

 Smith's time, who captured a $ and ? at Wey bridge in 1844. I have 

 kept a sharp look out for it in this neighbourhood for many years, but 

 have not seen anything that even looked suspiciously like it ; it is a 

 very distinct species, and recognisable at once by the band of pale 

 pubescence widening at the sides of the abdominal segments. Several 

 of the species of Ccelioxys occur with those of Megachile, and like 

 them visit bramble flowers, thistles, &c. In this country C. veetis 

 seems to associate with M. maritima, rufescens and elongata, so far as 

 I have observed, with M. circumcincta ; but on the continent Friese 

 says the former occurs with species of Anthophora, and he mentions 

 C. quadridentata as an associate of AntJiophora parietina. Near 

 Chobham I have taken quadridentata on a bank, where earlier in the 

 season I have found Anthophora retusa, so that I suspect it is asso- 

 ciated with the latter species in this country. Aiithidium manicatum 

 should be looked for on Lamium purpureum, and other Labiates ; its 

 habit of stripi)ing the stems of plants with its mandibles of their woolly 



