32'i THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and entenng tbem when no Halicli wore present, and that he 

 never saw them enter the nests of those bees ; he also 

 informs ns that he has often taken Sphecodes with the 

 clypeus and head covered with a layer of pollen ; they were 

 also observed to discharge honey, like other Mellifera ; and 

 these circnmstances he considers are sufficient proofs that 

 they provision their own nests. Dr. Sichel points out that 

 they are not completely deprived of pollenigerous organs ; 

 the first joint of their tarsi is furnished wilh a little stiff 

 brush beneath, and their posterior tibia? on the outside has a 

 brush well-developed. 



It is true that the burrows of these bees have not yet been 

 examined with sufficient care and success ; their stored cells 

 have not been satisfactorily discovered ; but so much has 

 been observed that little, if any, doubt remains of their pro- 

 visioning their own nests ; and, as I have previously stated, 

 Dr. Sichel has observed collections of pollen on their face 

 and clypeus. The theory of St. Fargeau has long been 

 ascertained to be erroneous : Spinola published the Jiistory 

 of Ceratina as far back as 1807, since which Mr. Thwaites 

 has confirmed his account of the industrial habits of that 

 genus. I have myself taken recently-furnished nests of that 

 bee, and observed all its changes from the young larva to 

 the perfect condition of the insect, during the last summer. 



That division of the PompilidiE comprised in the genus 

 Agenia, not being armed with spines or serratures on the 

 tibiae, was supposed by St. Fargeau to be parasitic upon 

 other species of Pompilidae, but observation has proved that 

 the absence of such armature only indicates a different phase 

 in the economy of that genus. Agenia punctum, a rare 

 species in this country, constructs mud cells, which it pro- 

 visions with spiders : from such a nest I reared a fine series 

 of the sexes of that insect. A. variegatus constructs similar 

 cells in holes in walls, old posts, &c. : I observed it convey- 

 ing spiders into such situations, some years ago, when in 

 Yorkshire, where I found the insect plentifully. 



Of the genus Sphecodes I consider that we have in this 

 country five well-marked species. Dr. Sichel, in the paper 

 previously alluded to, reduces four of these species into 

 varieties of one, Sphecodes gibbus : in this opinion I do not 

 concur : the constant differences of sculpture, as well as of 



