BECCAFICO. 



BEE. 



422 



Bacton. Remains of the Beaver have also been found in the cliffs at 

 Mundesley, and in the oyster-bed at Happisburg in Norfolk ; also in 

 the fluvio-marine crag at Thorpe in Suffolk, and from a formation 

 earlier still in the fluvio-marine crag at Sizewell Gap near Southwold, 

 Suffolk. M. Fischer also received the remains of another Beaver with 

 those of Trogontlteriuni from near the lake of Rostoff, in the depart- 

 ment of Jarosslow, and which he called Trogontherium Werneri, but 

 which Cuvier recognised as the remains of the Common Beaver. 



BECCAFI'CO, the Italian name for Beccafiyo, or Fig-Eater; Bec- 

 fiytie of the French ; Ficedula of the Romans ; and Su/coAly of the 

 Greeks. Prince Bonaparte, in his ' Specchio Comparative," observes 

 that this name is applied to different birds of the genus St/hia (Sylvan 

 Warblers), whenever they are fat, and in a good state for the table. 

 They are generally fruit-eaters in the season ; but the true eccafico, 

 with its ' carne squisita,' is, according to the Prince, the Sylvia hor- 

 tenxia of Bechstein. [SYLVIA.] 



BECHKRA, a genus of Fossil Plants proposed by Count Sternbeig. 

 Bechera Char(fformis occurs in the strata of Coalbrookdale. In this 

 genus Sternberg included the Gyroganites, or fossil Chane of the 

 Tertiary Strata of the Isle of Wight 



BECKER, or Braize, a Fish. [PAGKUS.] 



BEDSTRAW. [GALIUM.] 



BEE, the name common to all the species of a very numerous 

 tribe of Insects of the order Hymenoptera. 



In England alone about 250 species have been discovered. Kirby, 

 in his beautiful monograph, ' Apum Angliae,' divides them into two 

 great groups Apis and Melitta, which differ principally in the pro- 

 boscis. In Apis the tongue (Jig. 3, c), 

 or central part of the proboscis, is 

 generally long, and the proboscis itself 

 has two joints, one near the base, and 

 another about the middle ; tliat at the 

 base directing it outwards, and that in 

 the middle directing it inwards : when 

 folded, the apex of the tongue points 

 backwards. In Melitta the tongue 

 (fiy. 1, a) is short, and the proboscis 

 has but one fold, which is near the 

 base ; and when folded the apex of the 

 tongue points forwards. These two 

 groups are also subdivided by Kirby, 

 and the character of each subdivision 

 is given in detail ; but he did not 

 think proper to give names to these 

 smaller groups. It has however since 

 been thought necessary to consider the 

 smaller groups as genera; and hence 

 they have all been named, the greater 

 portion of them by Latreille. When 

 the smaller groups were considered 

 genera, the greater ones became fami- 

 ;tnd are named Apid<e and Andres- 

 nidce by Dr. Leach. 



The species of Andrccnida", which 

 are very abundant during the spring . . 



months, frequent grassy banks ; the Head of one of the Andrxnida 

 males are generally seen flying about (Melitta, Kirby), showing the 

 hedges. The females usually construct proboscis, a, the tongue. 

 their nests underground ; for which 



purpose they generally select a bank in a southern aspect : some 

 special choose sandy situations, while others prefer a heavier soil. 

 The female - 

 drical hole, 

 large enough _ ____ ___ . ... 



increased in width, and rendered smooth by being lined with a 

 glutinous substance. The labour of forming these cells is consider- 

 able, for the soil is removed grain by grain, and deposited round the 

 entrance of the hole, so that a little hillock is formed. The cell 

 being completed, her next object is to furnish it with pollen ; this is 

 collected from flowers, and carried on the tibite of the hinder legs, 

 which are thickly furnished with tolerably long hair, among which 

 the pollen is carried until she arrives at the celL When a sufficient 

 quantity of pollen is collected, and made into a kind of paste by the 

 addition of a portion of honey, it is formed into a little ball, in which 

 an egg is deposited ; the mouth of the cell is then carefully closed, to 

 prevent the entrance of other insects. The egg soon hatches, and 

 becomes a larva, which feeds upon the pollen until it is all consumed ; 

 the larva then turns to a pupa, and the pupa to the perfect insect. 

 It is remarkable that the Andrcenida; seldom make their appearance 

 after the spring months and early part of the summer, although the 

 eggs laid at that time have undergone all their metamorphoses (in 

 many instances) by the autumn. The newly-disclosed insect remains 

 all the intermediate time in a torpid state. We believe that the 

 species only live one year, for in the autumn we have found many of 

 tli. -iu on the ground dead, and the inner part of their body devoured : 

 thin i* probably done by a spider which is found in the same situations. 



The habits of the species of Apulce are more variable : many exca- 

 vate their cells in wood ; some, like the cuckoo, make use of the nestn 



i. The under side of the 



of other species ; others again do not excavate cells, but make use of 

 any hole already formed, or of some other situation convenient for 

 that purpose. Of this last description a species of the genus A nthir 

 dium has afforded a remarkable instance. This bee is nearly the 

 size of the Hive-Bee, but is broader in proportion, and is easily 

 distinguished from all the hitherto-discovered British species, by 

 having a series of bright yellow spots on each side of the abdomen. 

 A female of this species has been known to build her nest in the lock 

 of a garden gate. The nest consists of a number of cells formed of 

 down collected from the Anemone sylrestris, and probably from other 

 woolly-leaved plants, scraped off by the bee with its jaws. 



The flight of this insect is exceedingly swift ; but when it has dis- 

 covered a flower on which it intends to settle (generally that of the 

 blind nettle), it stops suddenly, poises itself in the air for a few 

 seconds, and then darts upon the flower, dislodging any bee which 

 may have settled upon it before. 



Sometimes it appears more anxious to dislodge other bees, and to 

 prevent their gathering honey, than to collect for itself, for it flies 

 about from flower to flower, and pounces upon all it meets with. 



Anthophora, retusa is another bee, which in its flight veiy much 

 resembles the one just described. This bee is considerably larger 

 than the Hive-Bee : the male is brown, sometimes inclining to an 

 ochre colour, and is remarkable for the three long tufts of hair which 

 are attached to the middle leg, two of them to the tip of the tibia} 

 (that on the posterior part being very long), and another to the tip of 

 the tarsus. The female of this species is so much unlike the male, 

 that it has been thought by many to be a distinct species. It is 

 entirely black, except the outer side of the hinder tibia;, which is 

 covered with red hairs : it is without the tufts on the intermediate 

 leg. This species constructs its cells in the sides of banks, generally 

 choosing those which are perpendicular. 



It is to this same family that the Hive-Bee belongs, to the history 

 and economy of which we shall confine ourselves. 



The Apis mellifica, Hive-Bee, or Honey-Bee, has for many ages justly 

 claimed the attention and study of naturalists. Among the earliest 

 of its observers may be enumerated Aristotle and Virgil ; also Aristo- 

 machus of Soli in Cilicia, and Philiscus the Thasian. Aristomachus, 

 we are told by Pliny, attended solely to bees for fifty-eight years ; and 

 Philiscus, it is said, spent the whole of his time in forests, investigating 

 their habits. (Plin. xi. 9.) Both these observers wrote on the Bee. 

 In modern times the labours of Swammerdam, Rdaumur, Bonnet, 

 Schirach, Thorley, Hunter, Huber, and others, have added greatly to 

 our knowledge of this interesting species. 



Fig. 2. The three descriptions of Bees of a Hive. 



a, the Male or Drone ; b, the Neuter or Worker ; c, the Female or Queen. 

 The lines denote the natural length of each. 



The Honey-Bee always livea in society with many of its own species. 

 In its natural state it generally constructs its nest in hollow trees ; 



