LAPIDARY OR ORANGE-TAILED BEE. 253 



rufescent hairs, palest on the thighs ; underside of 

 the body flavescent. Varieties occur nearly one half 

 smaller than the ordinary length, which often exceeds 

 ten lines. 



This is likewise a common bee, not only in Britain, 

 but in most other parts of Europe. It frequents 

 flowers throughout the summer, and is partial to 

 hilly pastures and imperfectly cultivated places. It 

 stores up honey with great assiduity strenue melli- 

 ficans, is Linnaeus's expression and it defends it, as 

 most schoolboys can testify, with no small zeal and 

 pertinacity. Its colonies are not so populous as those 

 of B. terrestris, but they are more so than the asso- 

 ciations of B. inuscorum. Owing to the great diffe- 

 rence in the markings, the male has been mistaken 

 by Fabricius and others for a separate species, which 

 he named B. arbustorum. 



MOSS OR CARDER BEE. 



(BOM BUS MUSCORUM.) 



PLATE XVI. Fig. 3. 



Apis muscorum, Linn. Donov. xi. 70, PI. 382, fig. 2 



Kirby's Monog. Ap. ii. 317. A. senilis, Fab A. impavidus, 

 melleus and melinus, Harris* Expos. Pis. 38 and 40. 

 The Cording Bee, Bingley, iii. 288. 



USUALLY rather a smaller insect than either of the 

 preceding, although the females sometimes attain the 

 length of ten lines. The general colour of the whole 

 body is pale yellow, the hirsuties rather long ; probos- 

 cis the length of the thorax, (it is represented in the 

 accompanying fig. with the parts extended and sepa- 



