102 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



remarkable peculiarity, as it is amongst them that we should 

 almost exclusively expect to find that distinguishing economy, 

 from the seemingly imperfect apparatus furnished in the 

 short structure of their tongues. It is possible, however, that 

 Nature has so moulded them as to fit them chiefly for 

 fulfilling its objects within merely a certain range of the 

 floral reign, and which restricts them to visiting flowers 

 which do not require the protrusion of a long organ to rifle 

 their sweet stores." — '■British Bees,' p. 197. 



It will be seen, therefore, that the economy of these bees 

 was unknown, or rather very imperfectly known, to those who 

 have been the most assiduous in their researches into bee 

 life-history. The insects themselves — that is, their personal 

 appearance — are familiar to all who have spent pleasant hours 

 in the capture of wild bees. English species are very uniform 

 in colour and general appearance; but those of the same 

 species vary greatly in size. The species agree in having the 

 head and thorax black, without any gloss, and clothed with 

 a very short pilosity of a gray colour; the abdomen is gene- 

 rally of a brick-red colour, and very glabrous ; it is always 

 more or less varied with black, particularly at the tip. None 

 of the British species appear to have those yellow or whitish 

 markings on the face which are so conspicuous and ornamental 

 in the genus Prosopis. There are five species described as 

 British by Mr. Smith, as under: — 



1. S, gihba is fond of hiding in flowers, burying itself 

 among the florets of composite flowers, especially of thistles; 

 and these flowers, being in great measure autumnal, it follows 

 that autumn is the proper season for collecting this species, 

 which is also frequently found on sand-banks, in company 

 with the burrowing bees that commonly frequent such 

 situations. Fig. 1 lepresents a male ; fig. '2, a female (the 

 unshaded parts of the figure are red in the bee; the line 

 below represents the size); fig. 3 represents a male; and 

 fig. 4, a female of Sphekodes sphekoides : this was the 

 Melitta sphecoides of Kirby, ' Monographia Apum,' vol. ii., 

 p. 41 ; it is not now maintained as a distinct species, but is 

 incorporated with S. gibba, and included under the same 

 name. 



2. >S'. rtifescens. — There is a great confusion about the 

 specific name of this species. It is certainly the Apis gibba 



