54 Mr. S. S. Saunders's Description of 



observation has in several instances served to disprove. Thus, 

 in an interesting notice which appeared some time since in the 

 Annales of the French Entomological Society, (tome 9, premier 

 trimestre, 1840,) " sur les Insectes Hymenopteres qui nichent 

 dans l'lnterieur des Tiges seches de la Ronce" (p. 35), the writers 

 (MM. Leon Dufour and Edouard Perris) have evinced a laudable 

 desire to vindicate the reputation of some of their Hymenopterous 

 proteges from the aspersions previously cast upon them in this 

 respect, — as in the case of Cerat'ma (pp. 16 — 23) and Trypoxylon 

 (pp. 28 — 33) ; while however they arrive at a different conclusion 

 respecting a species of Hylceus they had in like manner reared 

 from briars (the Prosopis signata or annulata), upon which head 

 they remark as follows : " La Prosope usurpe les nids de V Osmia 

 parvula, et ses larves reduisent celles de cette Apiaire a mourir de 

 faim, en devorant les provisions recuellis par cette derniere.'' — p. 35. 



I have myself, on more than one occasion, reared specimens of 

 Hylceus from briars wherein a species of Osmia was also met with, 

 — such being however unusual and exceptional cases, when the 

 cells of the one appeared perfectly independent of those of the 

 other ; the Hylceus having, as I conceive, simply availed itself of 

 the unoccupied portion of an excavated briar, after the Osmia had 

 completed her labours; the cells constructed by the latter, and the 

 pupa-cases of her young, forming an uninterrupted series lower 

 down, — the limits of the slender tapestry of the Hylcei above being 

 readily distinguishable, and on one occasion a deposit of liquid 

 acidulous honey being found intermediate between the two (as in 

 the accompanying briar marked B). 



Whence could this honey have proceeded, and for what purpose 

 could it have been collected and deposited ? Can this be the na- 

 ture of the food upon which the Hylceus larvae subsist, and could 

 it have found its way hither by exuding from the cells of the Hylcei, 

 or have been so placed to prevent the egress of the Osmia? This 

 is a problem difficult to explain; the solution of which, as denning 

 the habits and economy of the Hylcei, offers an interesting subject 

 of inquiry. 



The allied genus Colletes (long known as a constructor,* and 

 furnished with pollinigerous organs) has been observed by Mr. 

 Smith filling her cells with a " liquid mixture of pollen and 

 honey ; "-f- and may not the Hylcei also — the peculiar conformation 

 of whose oral organs, as well as those of Colletes, approximates to 

 that of the social Vespidce — supply their larvae with some viscous 



* Reaumur, Mem. 5, torn. vi. 

 t Zoologist, 1846, p. 1275. 



