A COLONY OF ANTHOPHORA 63 



(pi. D, 26) in the larger and squarer spots of the 

 body and various small structural characters hardly 

 appreciable except by specialists. The Anthopho- 

 ras have other parasites besides their cuckoos ; 

 one is a beetle, which, however, is rare, and which 

 lays its egg in the Anthophora cells ; the other 

 is a very minute member of the Hymenopterous 

 family, whose larva when hatched feeds upon the 

 larva of the bee. Notwithstanding these disadvan- 

 tages both species are abundant, although retusa 

 is more local than pilipes. A very interesting 

 fact connected with this genus has just been 

 communicated to me by the Rev. F. D. Morice. 

 John Ray, who lived in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, mentions in his book Historia Insectorum 

 (published posthumously in 1710), p. 243, that 

 a large colony of a bee, which from his 

 description was clearly an Anihophora, as he 

 specially calls attention to the great difference 

 between the males and females, inhabited a certain 

 locality at Kilby near " Hill Morton " in Northamp- 

 tonshire. Mr. Morice, who for many years resided 

 at Rugby, knew Hillmorton, as it is now spelled, 

 well, and tells me that a large colony of Anthophora 

 was in that same locality when he knew it only 



