142 NEW WORKS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



being four, but in some instances they construct five or six, com- 

 mencing at the end of the whorl ; a suitable supply of pollen and 

 honey is collected, an egg deposited, and a partition formed of 

 abraded vegetable matter ; the process is repeated until the requisite 

 number is formed, when the whole is most carefully protected by 

 closing up the entrance with small pellets of clay, sticks and peb- 

 bles ; these are firmly cemented together with some glutinous matter, 

 and the bee has finished her task. 



"We will now observe the intelligence of the bee under different 

 circumstances ; she has selected the adult shell of Helix aspersa ; 

 the whorl of this species is much larger in diameter than that of 

 H. nemoralis or H. hortensis— too wide, in fact, for a single cell. 

 Our little architect, never at a loss, readily adapts it to her purpose 

 by forming two cells side by side, and as she advances towards the 

 entrance of the whorl, it becomes too wide even for this contrivance. 

 Here let us admire the ingenuity of the little creature , she constructs 

 a couple of cells transversely ! And this is the little animal which 

 has been so blindly slandered as being a mere machine ! " 



******** 



" The Bombi are the most generally known of all the genera of 

 wild bees ; hence they have received a variety of popular names. In 

 Hampshire they are called Dumbledors, in other districts Bumble- 

 bees and Hummel-bees ; the brown species are known in Scotland 

 as the Foggie-bee, no idea existing of there being more than one 

 species of that colour. It is very probable that Humble may be a 

 corruption of humming, for we constantly find, in natural history, 

 popular names given to animals and plants extremely characteristic. 

 No one, who loves to watch nature in all her varied guise, can have 

 failed in early spring, when the catkins are first found on the willow, 

 to notice the loud hum of the females of different species of Bombi ; 

 and in May, when the horse-chestnut blooms, from the break to the 

 close of day the hum of these industrious bees is unceasing." 



We annex a list of the British Bees which will be found described 

 in the work before us, feeling confident that this volume will give a 

 vast stimulus to the study of this group of insects, and that a bird's- 

 eye view of the whole will be found of considerable assistance. 



Catalogue of British Andrenidje and Apidje. 



Fam. 1. ANDRENID^. 3. marginata. 



Subfam. 1. OBTUSILIN- 4 - Daviesana. 



GUES. 2. Prosopis. 



Genus 1. Colletes. l communis. 



1. succincta. 2 - annularis. 



2. fodiens. 3 - dilatata. 



4. cornuta. 



