BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 185 



my own observation has enabled me to ascertain, does not con- 

 struct its own burrow, but makes use of any hole which is 

 adapted for its purpose. I once detected a bee entering the hole 

 above the wheel of the sash-line in a summer-house ; but its 

 nests are most commonly formed in the holes bored in old willow 

 stumps by Cossus ligniperda : formerly they were easily obtained 

 in Battersea Fields, where old willows abounded. It is probable 

 that, when the parent insect has selected one of these ready- 

 formed tunnels, she enlarges the end used as the depository of 

 the nest, and this is easily effected, as the stumps in question, at 

 the depth of a couple of inches, consist of soft decayed wood ; 

 the chamber being formed, the bee collects a quantity of down 

 from woolly-stemmed plants, with which she forms an outer 

 coating ; she then constructs a number of cells for the reception 

 of the pollen or food of the larva ; they consist of a woolly ma- 

 terial, mixed with some glutinous matter which resists the moist- 

 ure of the food it contains, and in which the larva on being full- 

 fed spins a brown silken cocoon : these bees pass the winter in 

 the larva state, and do not appear until midsummer. In one 

 respect the sexes of this genus differ from most other bees, the 

 males being much larger than the females : they copulate while 

 flying in this genus as well as in Anthophora. 



1. Anthidium manicatum. 



A. albido-villosum ; abdomine maculis flavis lateralibus; ano 

 maris inflexo, quinquedentato. 



Apis manicata, Linn. Faun. Suec. 1701 ; Syst. Nat. i. 958. 28 <J , 



Fabr. Syst. Ent. 384. 35 ; Ent. Syst. ii. 330. 73. 



Schaff. Icon. Ins.t. 32. f. 11, 12. 



Rossi, Faun. Etrusc. ii. 103. 914. 



Christ. Hym. p. 133. t. 9. f. 5. 



Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 248. 47. t. 16. f. 12 ? , 13 $ . 



Don. Brit. Ins. xiv. p. 57. t. 489. 

 Anthidium manicatum, Fabr. Syst. Piez. p. 364. 1. 



Curtis, Brit. Ent. iv. t. 61. 



Latr. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. xiii. 212. 5. 



St. Farg. Hym. ii. 355. 4. 



Smith, Zool. iv. 1452. 1. 



Nyland. Ap. Boreal p. 265. 22. 



Apis maculata, Fabr. Ent. Syst. ii. 332. 77, var. $ ; Syst. Piez. 

 365 (var. /3. A. manicatum, fcemina). 



Panz. Faun. Germ. 7. 14, 



