THE BEES WITH BIFID TONGUES 45 



in sandy cuttings, etc. They are preyed upon by 

 a pretty little cuckoo bee called Epeolus (pi. B, 19), 

 which is black, ornamented with brownish red 

 and whitish spots. One of our best known 

 species, Colletes fodiens, can often be found in 

 abundance on the heads of ragwort along the 

 sea-coast in July. 



The other genus Prosopis is outwardly entirely 

 unlike Colletes : its species are nearly all very 

 small coal-black insects, with scarcely any notice- 

 able hairs, rather unusually narrow and cylindri- 

 cal in form ; they emit a peculiar, agreeably 

 scented fluid when handled ; in the males the 

 face is almost always white or yellow, in the 

 females there is generally a yellow spot on each 

 side near the eye. These little creatures are 

 especially fond of burrowing in bramble stems. 

 They like those which have been cut off in 

 trimming the hedges, because in them the pith 

 is exposed and they can burrow their way into 

 it without gnawing through the wood. If any 

 one, going along a hedge which has been trimmed, 

 containing a lot of brambles, in the autumn or 

 winter, would examine the cut-off ends they 

 would soon find some with holes in them. These 



