THE ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA OF MID-SOLWAY. XIX. 



local species, A. Wilkella, is rare, only one or two specimens having been 

 taken on dandelions near Dalscairth. 



The next division that comes in for enumeration is that of the Cuc- 

 koo Bees, forming the genus Nomada. Superficially they resemble 

 slender wasps, being mostly more or less banded with black and yellow. 

 Their economy is most interesting. Stated generally, these bees attach 

 themselves to certain other species of wild bees, depositing their eggs in 

 their cells, and leaving the eggs and young larvae to the care of other 

 species, so that their life history is not unlike that of the cuckoo 

 amongst birds. Hence their name of Cuckoo Bees. Nomada solida- 

 ginis, N. alternata and N. obtusifrons are each very commonly found. 

 N. lateralis, N. fabriciana, and N. flavoguttata are frequent, though not 

 numerous. A few specimens of N. ruficornis and N. furva have been 

 caught, while of N. roberjeottiana only one specimen has been taken. 



The genus Caelioxys comes next on our local list, and of its repre- 

 sentatives we have C. vectis, C. rufescens, and C. elongata, all occurring 

 with tolerable frequency. 



The fine genus Megachile is well represented here in numbers of 

 individuals, if not in species. M. Willughbiella is -very common every- 

 where ; this is the bee which is seen so frequently making its burrows 

 in rotten trees and stumps. M. centuncularis is the familiar " leaf-cutter " 

 bee ; it makes its burrows in wood or in old walls, but occasionally in 

 the ground ; it lines its cells in the most artistic way with little round 

 pieces neatly clipped out of the leaves of bushes, those of the rose by 

 preference. 



Anthidium manicatum is to me personally the most interesting of 

 insects, for it was probably the first that attracted my attention. Its 

 strange mode of courtship, much akin to what is related of the love- 

 making (?) of the Australian aborigine, I used often to watch when I 

 was a very small boy indeed. But at that time I had no idea when I 

 saw the headlong rush of the male, and saw him clutch his partner in 

 such a vicious looking embrace and observed him bear her aloft into 

 the air, that his intention was anything else than to devour her forth- 

 with. A favourite occupation of this species is that of scraping the 

 tomentum off such plants as supply this material, making it up into 

 little bundles, and then carrying it off for lining its nests with. The 

 species is common in most situations suitable for it. I have nowhere 

 seen it in such abundance as upon the bramble flowers in the loaning 

 that leads up from Rockcliffe past the avenue to Baron's Craig. 



It is somewhat remarkable that the genus Osmia should be un- 

 represented in the district, at anyrate so far as my experience goes. 

 There are certainly specimens of Osmia fulviventris in the collection of 

 the Rev. W. Little, now in my possession, but they have no data 

 attached, and so it is uncertain whether they are of local origin or not. 



Of the Anthophorae I have only taken Anthophora retusa, of which 

 I took specimens on one occasion near Threave Castle, 



