PROSOPIS. 195 



not be extant in a parasite. In Colletes it is the con- 

 comitant of as ample a power of collecting pollen as any 

 that we find exhibited throughout the whole range of 

 our native bees, but in Prosopis it is concurrent with a 

 total deficiency of the ordinary apparatus employed for 

 that purpose. 



One of the species of this genus has been found near 

 Bristol, with the indication of a Stylops having escaped 

 from it, which is a further extension of the parasitism 

 of that most extraordinary genus, but the Stylops fre- 

 quenting it has not yet been discovered, which would 

 doubtless present a new species, therefore an interesting 

 addition to the series already known. 



These insects are not at all uncommon in some of the 

 species during the latter spring and summer months, 

 and they frequent the several Resedas, being very fond 

 of Mignonette. They are also found upon the Draco- 

 cephalum Moldavica, and occur not unfrequently upon the 

 Onion, which in blossom is the resort of many interest- 

 ing insects. The majority of them emit when captured, 

 and if held within the fingers, a very pungent citron 

 odour, exceedingly refreshing on a hot day, in intense 

 sunshine. Some of the species are rare, especially those 

 very highly coloured, as is also the P. dilatata, so named 

 from the peculiar triangular expansion of the basal joint 

 of the antennae, the female of which is not known or 

 possibly has only been overlooked or not identified. 

 The P. varipes and P. variegata, which are the most 

 richly coloured, occur in the west of England, and 

 in one, the P. cornuta, the clypeus is furnished with a 

 tubercle. 



o 2 



