head with the thorax, or of the thorax with the 

 ahdomen, and transports it to the bottom of the 

 gallery. As each female deposites at least five 

 or six eggs, the consequence is that the same 

 number of bees must be destroyed. In an 

 extent of ground about one hundred and tw^enty 

 feet long, Mr. Latreille counted from fifty to 

 sixty females actively employed in making their 

 nests, these of course destroyed about three 

 hundred bees. Let us then suppose a surface 

 of country about six miles square, a fiftieth part 

 of which would afford a proper situation for 

 the operations of the females of this species of 

 Philanthus; these would be a sufficient num- 

 ber to destroy fifteen thousand of those useful 

 insects. The eggs are w^hite, nearly cylindrical, 

 rounded at the two ends. The larvae resemble 

 those of the bee. The covering of the pupa is 

 a thin pellicle. 



Fabricius first applied the name Philanthus; 

 but Latreille divided the group which his pre- 

 decessor established under that name into two 

 genera, retaining the appellation for the present 

 group, and applying that of Cerceres to such 

 as have denticulated mandibles, and the second 

 cubital cellule petiolated. The former were 



PLATE 49. 



