l62r FAMILIyE. {Jpis. **. c. 2. «.) 



of ^ndrena hidentata of Fabricius, is another very 

 distinct species of this kind, which 1 have seen in 

 Sir J. Banks's cabinet. Of this, that author ob- 

 serves, ^'^ Nidum in muris e foliis arborum convo- 

 lutis stru.it (i) ;" from which circumstance, it is 

 evident, that its female is one of the centunculares, 

 I have another exotic male, given me by Mr. 

 Sowerby, which comes very near this, if it be not 

 the same insect. 



Reaumur informs us, that he was acquainted 

 with five species which construct their nests in this 

 way, and he suspects that there are many more(y^). 

 All those, to which he had attended, lodged their 

 centunculi under ground (/). GeofFroy represents 

 his j4. centuncularis as making its nests in the 

 trunks of decaving trees (in). This is the case 

 with three at least of our English species ; two of 

 them, I believe, nidificate under ground {n). These 

 reasons, I hope, will justify me sufficiently for 

 having made so many species out of what before 

 had been accounted only one. 



I shall now abridge Reaumur's interesting ac- 

 count of the history of these most ingenious in- 

 sects, and add to this what I have been able to 

 collect from other quarters. 

 ' " The nests they construct," our author informs 

 us, " are cylindrical, sometimes of tlie length of 



(i) Ent. Syst, Era. n, 2/. (/:) Reaum. ibid. p. II9-2O. 



(/) Ibid. p. 123. {m) Hist. Ins. torn. 2. p. 410. n. 5. 



(n) Viz, Apis drcumcincta and xanthoradana of this work. 



six 



