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Proceedings 13 
alike, the prettily-banded little Colletes Daviesana being 
the most common. It burrows in hard sandy banks, often 
taking advantage however of a layer of softer sand between 
harder rocks. The cells which are placed in these bur- 
rows are very beautiful objects when fresh, but get duller 
when kept for some time. They are constructed of a very 
delicate membrane, which has been compared to gold- 
beaters skin. Each cell contains honey and pollen, and 
one egg, and they are placed end to end in rows of about 
half-a-dozen. 
We now come to a number of very small coal-black, 
shiny Bees, with minute patches of delicate white pubes- 
cence, which form the genus Prosopis. Some of the foreign 
species are more or less red. They were at one time 
thought to be inquiline in their habits, as they have no 
pollen brush, but they are now known to construct delicate 
membranous cells, somewhat like those of Codletes, but 
much smaller, in bramble stems, holes in walls or posts. 
The late Frederick Smith records an instance in which one 
of these little Bees had chosen a hollow flint-stone, which 
on being broken open, was found to contain a number of 
cells, some containing perfect Bees. I have bred P. drevi- 
cornis from perforated bramble-stems collected near Fair- 
light Glen, at Hastings. 
Sphecodes is another genus of small Bees with very little 
pubescence, but instead of being black, as in Prosopis, they 
are mostly black and red. This genus has been the subject 
of much controversy, some asserting that the various species 
are inquilines, quartering themselves on species of Hadictus, 
while others maintain that they make and provision their 
own burrows. The former view is that which finds general 
acceptance at the present time. The circumstances which 
support this view are these :—The two genera are found 
in the same situations and in mixed colonies; they are 
destitute of the usual pollen-collecting organs; each 
species varies greatly in size, which is usually the case in 
known inquiline or parasitic insects ; their ordinary be- 
haviour is suspicious, as they appear to be always watching 
and dogging the movements of the Ffalictus females, much 
