CERATINA, 



247 



horn between its antennae, xeparlvrj, a horn. Some 

 foreign entomologists, especially Latreille and Le Pelle- 

 tier de St. Fargeau, have considered it to be parasitical, 

 but that it is not so we have the authority of the Mar- 

 quis Spinola, of Genoa, confirmed by the testimony of 

 Mr. Thwaites, a very accurate observer, in the vicinity of 

 Bristol, where the insect is not at all uncommon, al- 

 though extremely rare in most other parts, and conse- 

 quently usually a desideratum to cabinets, from its great 

 beauty both of form and colour, notwithstanding that it 

 is so very small in size. It has also been found in other 

 localities, as at Birchwood, where the late Mr. Bambridge 

 used to take it, and as near London as Charlton, at 

 both which places I have no doubt it might frequently 

 be found were it carefully looked for, but the practised 

 entomological eye is often wanting to detect an insect 

 unless it be conspicuously present. Its usual nidus is a 

 bramble or briar stick, from which it excavates the pith, 

 and this it has been frequently observed doing, and both 

 sexes have been repeatedly bred from such sticks. We 

 have no notice of any peculiarity in its mode of form- 

 ing its cells, which may resemble that of such wood- 

 boring genera as Chelostoma and Heriades, although its 

 structure would intimate a closer affinity to the habits of 

 the exotic genus Xylocopa ; nor is there extant any ac- 

 count of the process or time occupied in the development 

 of its young. Spinola's notion, from not seeing the 

 sufficiency of the hair upon the posterior tibiae for the 

 purpose, assumed that the pollen was conveyed home 

 on the forehead and between the antennas, he having 

 caught an insect with some pollen accidentally incrusted 

 there in the insect's honey-seeking excursion. The 

 hair upon these legs is very sparse, it is true, but then it 



