38 



HYMENOPTERA. 



rose tree, which grew a few yards from their burrows ; and 

 these bees also, I was delighted to observe, like the M. ar- 

 gentata, resorted to the scarlet Geraniums for the inner lining 

 of their cells. These observations, and others made on pre- 

 vious occasions, are convincing proofs to us, that the leaf- 

 cutting bees resort to those plants which they find nearest 

 to their burrows, when suited to their purposes ; at any 

 rate, such plants which they first discover ; at one time lining 

 their cells with, the sober-coloured green leaves of the laburnum, 

 and at another selecting the petals of the gorgeous scarlet 

 Geranium. 



The observations made induce us to think it quite pos- 

 sible that the poppy-bee only occasionally appears in that 

 character, and that at another time she may be the Gera- 

 nium, the Lotus or the Laburnum-bee ; it may prove that this 

 species is really an inhabitant of Great Britain, but has been 

 overlooked, from the fact of its not having been detected 

 cutting the leaves of the poppy. Should the latter prove 

 to be the case, the above observations on leaf-cutting bees 

 will have attained their object, and the writer will be par- 

 doned having thus much trespassed on the patience of his 

 readers. 



Captures of Formicid;e. 



Three years ago we described all the known British 

 species of the genera Formica and Myrmica, amounting at 

 that time to twenty-ei°;ht, to these five have since been 

 added; and there can be little doubt of the number of 

 species being greatly increased when Scotland and its ad- 

 jacent islands are carefully searched. We would particularly 

 direct the attention of the Coleopterist to these insects when 

 searching in the nests of the wood- ant and also of the other 

 species of Formica ; there are two or three species of Myr- 

 mica, well known on the Continent, which appear always to 



