NOTES, ETC. 7^ 



The beautiful Aiidrena falvn was equally scarce, so much | 

 so that I did not secure a single example. ^ 



In order to ascertain, with a greater degree of certainty, 

 the manner in which the wet and cold of the previous season 

 had affected the solitary bees, I visited a locality at Southend, 

 where a very extensive colony of Anthophora has existed 

 for many years, and also one of Eucera lovgicornis; both | 

 these bees, in ordinary seasons, are found at that spot in great 

 numbers, but on my last visit scarcely a single bee was to be 

 seen on one of the finest days of early summer. Being dis- 

 appointed in my search, I proceeded to dig into the bank in 

 which the colony was situated ; an explanation of the cause | 

 of the scarcity of the bees soon presented itself; hundreds of I 

 dead bees filled the burrows, whilst numberless cells were ! 

 half filled with the mouldy remains of honey and pollen 

 stored up for the larvae, which had doubtless perished during 

 the former ungenial season. A similar fate has, I fear, 

 befallen three-fourths of the solitary bees, and it will I fear 

 be some years before we shall again see these attendants upon 

 spring and early summer, in their usual numbers, flying from | 

 flower to flower, and adding life and beauty to the sunny 

 days of spring. 



As might be expected. Humble bees did not suffer so 

 severely, but still a great diminution in their numbers was 

 very apparent; those which build their nest underground 

 appeared by far the most numerously ; the moss-building 

 species were greatly diminished in number. During the 

 autumn of 1860, I found nests of these bees in which the 

 entire brood had perished from the cold and wet ; larvae, ^ 

 pupae and perfect bees were rotting in the damp and mouldy 1 

 nests which swarmed with thousands of acari that fed upon 

 the remains of the wax and honey which they contained. 



I will now proceed to give some account of the parasites 

 that prey upon the different families of the Aculeata, con- 



