BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 18? 



are very numerous. Latreille in his Monograph on the genus* 

 has enumerated nine or ten varieties; these include the A. ma- 

 culata of Panzer, which is very rare in this country; this 

 variety has on each segment a transverse yellow band, inter- 

 rupted in the middle; only two instances are known of its 

 having been taken in England ; one specimen is in the collec- 

 tion of Mr. Desvignes ; it was captured in Scotland ; and the 

 other , is in the cabinet of Mr. Brown of Burton on Trent. 

 It is very singular that the variety which is rare in England 

 should be the most abundant one in France, our form being there 

 very rare. This insect is very abundant in the London district, 

 but it appears to be scarce in the north. 



This is the wild bee which White in his ' History of Selborne ' 

 has so well described in the following words : " There is a sort 

 of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for the sake of its 

 tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in the busi- 

 ness of nidification. It is very pleasant to see with what address 

 it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom of a 

 branch, and shaving it bare with the dexterity of a hoop-shaver. 

 When it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies 

 away, holding it secure between its chin and its fore legs." 



Genus 10. CHELOSTOMA. 



Apis, pt., Linn. Faun. Suec. 419 (1761). 

 Hylaens, pt., Fair. Ent. Syst. ii. 303 (1793). 

 Anthophora, pt., Fabr. Syst. Piez. p. 372 (1804). 

 Megachile, pt., Latr. Hist. Nat. xiv. 51 (1805). 

 Chelostoma, Latr. Gen. Crust, et Ins. iv. 161 (1809). 

 Heriades, pt., Zett. Ins. Lapp. p. 467 (1840). 



Head quadrate, usually wider than the thorax ; the antennas 

 not longer than the head in the female, the flagellum clavate ; 

 half as long as the thorax, slender and filiform in the male. 

 The labrum elongate, narrowed anteriorly, and truncate at 

 the apex ; the mandibles bidentate at their apex and densely 

 ciliated with hairs on their inner margin ; the ocelli placed in a 

 triangle, the posterior pair in a line with the vertex of the eyes. 

 The labial palpi four-jointed, the basal joint about one- third the 

 length of the second, the second joint somewhat attenuated at 

 the apex, the third placed in a line with it, short, the fourth 



* Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. xiii. p. 212, 5. 



