BEES ANDRENIDES 



FIG. 11. Sphecodes gibbus 9. Britain. 



occasions on which this bee has been found in Britain it was in 

 circumstances that left little doubt as to its being a parasite of 

 Anil I'cna nitjroaenca. Marchal has seen S. sttbquadratus fight 

 with Hul'n-ttix malacliurus, 

 and kill it previous to taking 

 possession of its burrows ; 

 and similar observations 

 have been made by Ferton. 

 As the older observations of 

 Smith, Sichel, and Friese 

 leave little doubt that Splie- 

 codes are sometimes indus- 

 trial bees, it is highly prob- 

 able that we have in this 

 genus the interesting con- 

 dition of bees that are sometimes parasitic, at other times 

 not ; but so much obscurity still prevails as to the habits of 

 Spliecodes that we should do well to delay accepting the theories 

 that have been already based on this strange state of matters. 2 

 Friese states that in Spliecodes the first traces of collecting 

 apparatus exist ; and, accepting the condition of affairs as being 

 that mentioned above, it is by no means clear whether we have 

 in Spliecodes bees that are abandoning the parasitic habit or com- 

 mencing it ; or, indeed, whether the condition of uncertainty 

 may not be a permanent one. It is difficult to decide as to 

 what forms are species in Spliecodes owing to the great variation. 

 The Hymenopterist Forster considered that 600 specimens sub- 

 mitted to him by Sichel represented no less than 140 species, 

 though Sichel was convinced that nearly the whole of them 

 were one species, S. gibbus. It has recently been found that the 

 male sexual organs afford a satisfactory criterion. The position 

 of SiJliecodes in classification is doubtful. 



The great majority of the species of short-tongued bees found in 

 Britain belong to the genera Andrena and Halictus, and with some 

 others constitute the ANDRENIDES of many writers. Halictn* 

 includes our smallest British bees. Their economy escaped the 

 earlier observers, but has recently been to some extent unravelled 

 by Smith, Fabre, Xicolas, Verhoeff, and others, and proves to be 



1 Bull. Soc. cnt. France, 1894, p. cxv. 

 - Marchal, Rev. Sci. 15th February 1890, and Ferton, t.c. 19tli April. 



