38 PROTECTION OF PLANTS. 1918-19 



A CANADIAN BEE COLLETES INAEQUALIS SAY 

 Rev. L. M. Stohr, College St. Alexandre, Ironside, P. 0- 



The aim and object of your society, as its name implies, being the protection 

 of plants against insect and fungous diseases, its field of action would seem to be 

 confined to the discovery, eradication and prevention of those ravages for which 

 insects and fungi are responsible. Nevertheless, would it not be restricting your 

 field too much to exclude from discussion every question which did not seem to 

 have a directly practical bearing? Should this course be adopted in fact? To 

 make use of applied entomology, we begin by studying the subject along general 

 lines, and useless indeed would those efforts be which were made to fight against 

 insects, and not based upon the biologic principles pecuHar to this class. 

 Without wishing to state that we can apply Virgils words "Ab uno disce omnis" 

 unrestrictedly, we may nevertheless make the statement that the knowledge of 

 the habits of one insect guides us to knowledge of others. 



Again, in the pursuit of one particular line of enquiry, we are inevitably led 

 to make observations bearing upon others of a totally different order. Should we 

 neglect them on that account? It seems to me that we have no right to do so, for 

 in the Natural Sciences where the field is so vast and our knowledge so lamentably 

 fragmentary, facts which have escaped the notice of one observer may perchance 

 be recorded by another; whilst those things which are negligible for one become 

 for another the starting point for the most important researches. 



It would, however, be unjust to regard insects as a class only as our enemies. 

 Without doubt their ravages are important, incalculable even, but among their 

 number are some which we look upon as precious auxiliaries, allies, who, far from 

 being harmful to our interest, work for them in concert with us. 



Bees, particularly, are they not of inestimable value to us in the work they 

 do when passing from flower to flower, to ensure pollination by this means, and 

 thus the reproduction of vegetable species? I do not think, therefore, that I am 

 departing from the true aim of the Society, in presenting some notes upon one of 

 our indigenous bees, Colletes inaequalis Say propinquus Cr. canadensis Cr. The 

 Colletes belong to the group Podilegidae, those bees which bear the pollen collec- 

 ting apparatus upon the tarsal joints. This genus contains a very modest number 

 of species, in comparison with its neighbour, the genus Andrena which includes 

 some hundreds. Like honest workers, they cannot afford the luxury of fine attire; 

 their costume is made for work, sombre in ground colour, only relieved by light 

 coloured bands upon the abdominal segments. 



They vary in size, but are as a rule rather more than medium, the species 



