APIS. (**. ,c. 2. a.) 24i 



margin of the abdominal segments has no white 

 hairs, nor is the anus particularly acute, they ap- 

 pear to me to be the other sex of the genuine A. 

 lagopoda. It is probable that Linneus, looking up- 

 on all the leaf cutter Bees as varieties only of the 

 same species, was not particular in the selection of 

 the specimeris he preserved. Reaumur's figure and 

 description agree with our insect, but those that 

 he was acquainted with made their nests under- 

 ground. GeofFroy represents his as tiidificating 

 in old wood, and the trunks of decayed trees. Mr, 

 James Trimmer found the nest of ours in a decay- 

 ing window-sell, aiid likewise in the cavity of a 

 brick wall. He observed that this little bee made 

 use of the leaves of Mercurialis annua, as well as 

 those of the rose. Perhaps it is indifferent to this 

 animal where she constructs her centunculi, pro- 

 vided it be in a place sufficiently sheltered from 

 the weather. The insect which Scopoli took for 

 A. centuncularis appears to me to be very distinct 

 from it, he describes it as much smaller, and the 

 thorax as covered with thick red hair (e), a circum- 

 stance which will not at all agree with ours. The 

 synonym of Ray (/), which I have likewise exclud- 

 ed, evidently belongs to another insect, the terms 

 " parva, corpore longo angusto,^' cannot well be 

 looked upon as descriptive of A. centuncularis, 



(e) Ent, Car. n. 7gQ. Ann. Hist. Nat. 4. n..l5. 

 </) Hist. Ins. p. 242. n, Q. 



Panzer's 



