1907] 
LOVELL AXD COCKERELL — M EGACIIILWAK 
17 ) 
THE MECArillLIDAE ( )E SOETHERX .MALXE. 
BY J. II. LOVELL ,\X1> T. 1). fOCKERELL. 
The value of the older collection, s of bees, which usually consist of siieciinens 
bearing only locality labels, i.s greatly impaired by the absence of flower-records; 
and they rec|uire to be supplemented by later and more carefully collected material. 
It is hardly worth while to-day to make a large collection of bees without jilacing 
on record for each specimen the name of the plant species upon which it was cap- 
tured, the date of visit, and the locality. It is also desirable to observe whether 
the iii.sect i.s sucking honey or gathering pollen. As bees are chiefly dependent 
upon nectar for food and upon pollen for brood-rearing they are of necessity constant 
and diligent visitors of flowers. Monotropic and oligotropic bees confine their 
visits to one or a few species of plants, while in the case of polytropic bees the species 
may fly only a part of the season, as with some species of Andrena. Even when 
the species fly during the entire summer there may be a portion of the time when 
only one sex is on the wing, as with the females of Bnmhm and llahrtus in spring. 
It is eviilent that accurate flower-records will greatly facilitate both the labor of 
collection and determination. 
( )f the nineteen species of iNIegachilidae enumerated in this paper none .so far 
as is known to the authors are oligotropic. The species of Osmia have been taken 
for the mo.st ])art in i\lay or June, while the species of Megachile and Coelinxi/x have 
all been collected later than July 9th. Xone of the species can be said to be com- 
mon; and most, as an examination of the flower-records given below will show, 
are rare. O.smia atriventri.s and (). melanotrirha are most fretpiently found on the 
flowers of llubus strigosus, while Merjarlrile latiwanus i.s usually a visitor of the 
Compositae. The.se three species arc the mo.st common local forms belonging to 
this family. 
( )stn.\. 
OsMI.V .VTRIVEXTRLS ( 'r. 
1SG4 O.vnia afrireniris Cr. $ , Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. 3: 29. 
1903 Osmia atrirentris Robt. $ c?, Trans. Am. Ent. Poe. 29: 170. 
The female has been collected on Rubns strigosus and Epilobitim angustifolium 
and several other jilants from June 16th to July 23rd. R'hree males were taken on 
Salix, May 6th and 7th, 1905. This species probably occurs throughout Xew Ping- 
land and the Eastern States; the type locality is ('onnccticut. 
