116 Mr. F. Smith on the Difficulties attending the 



varians, under similar circumstances. I had previously captured 

 the sexes of both the species in a similar way, but of the 

 A. varians only a single pair. On an examination of the male, 

 captured by my son, I am even more inclined to the opinion that 

 A, helvola and A. varians constitute but one species, being the 

 representatives of the opposite ends of a chain of varieties. I can 

 detect no difference beyond the greater or less development of the 

 angle, or tooth, at the base of the mandibles of the males, and the 

 females run so insensibly into a string of varieties, that I am 

 unable to draw a line of demarkation for any separation of 

 species. 



The most interesting capture, however, was a stylopized speci- 

 men of the male of Andrena Trimmerana. I readily detected, from 

 the cylindrical portion of the cocoon of a Stijlops, which projected 

 between the segments of the abdomen, that the individual it con- 

 tained was a male ; I lost no time in extracting itj when it proved 

 to be one of the finest I have seen ; one side of the cocoon I ob- 

 served had a transverse slit, from which I conjectured, that the 

 Stylops was in the act of effecting its escape when the bee was 

 captured. Having carefully spread out my insect on card, I at 

 once proceeded to make a careful drawing of it, whilst in its 

 perfect and recent condition. 



The results of my examination of this insect, in a state of 

 perfection, I consider very interesting ; in the first place, I will 

 point out a few particulars, necessary to be borne in mind when 

 1 come to some observations on the various representations of 

 species, in different publications. 



When a male Stylops is seen in a living state it is a very 

 different creature to that which many may have pictured to them- 

 selves, having had no other guide than the caricatures which 

 have appeared of it ; and, with one or two exceptions, they cannot 

 be considered otherwise. The texture of all parts of the body of 

 a male Stylops is of so delicate a nature, that within two hours 

 after death the entire appearance of the insect is changed; 

 bearing no nearer resemblance to the living creature, than a 

 shrivelled mummy does to the once manly and graceful Egyptian ; 

 the head becomes more or less distorted, and the remarkable 

 lateral appendages of the thorax, which in life were rounded on 

 one side and flattened on the other, become entirely changed in 

 form ; the abdomen, which when living, or recent, is of an elon- 

 gated cylindrical form, after death collapses and shrivels up into 

 the crumpled mass which is usually depicted ; in fact, such is the 



