THE ANIMAL IJFK OK TIIK GROUP. 415 



gent ei-eatures, and ai-e excelli'iit inatci'ial foi- the stiitlciit wlio lias tin- lime 

 and a taste for experimenting \villi animals. For example, they art' gi-eatly 

 disturbed by a eliange in the color of objects near whei-e they are working. If 

 a piece of red cloth is tied over the door knob they have great trouble in 

 finding the keyhole when they i-cturn ^\■ith mud, Ijut if the clutli is removed in 

 their absence they have no tr()ul)le in locating it. 



The Hawaiian solitary bees, of which there are at least sixty species, be- 

 longing to the genus \( soprosopis, are not readily identified t)\' the layman, 

 nor are they easily separated in the field from the wasps. Like the genus of 

 wasps just discussed, they vary greatl.N' in habits. Some nest in Hie ground, 

 some in dead standing timber and various unusual places, and arc disti-ibuted 

 from the coast to above the up])er forest. 



Of the typical or long-tongued bees.^'^ we find five species so far occurring 

 in Hawaii. Of these the conspicuous carpenter bee ^" and the useful honey 

 bee^'^ have already been mentioned. The three remaining species behnig to a 

 single genus ^^ and are characterized as leaf-cutting bees. The common name 

 is given them owing to their curious habit of making the thimble-shaped nests 

 for their young out of neatly-cut circular pieces of fresh leaves, which they 

 pack away in cells, often in holes in the woodwork, or in curled-up leaves of 

 the cocoanut palm. Leaves when mutilated by these bees look as though small 

 gun wads had been cut from them. The work of the wad-cutting bee is often 

 mistaken for that of the Japanese beetle, which, while it feeds on the leaves, 

 does not cut out the leaf in a regular pattern. 



The Beetles. 



Coming to the great order of beetles,^" we find it represented in tho Ha- 

 waiian insect fauna by more than forty families, embracing hundreds of pre- 

 cinctive and introduced species. All of the members of this extensive order 

 are easily recognized in the adult stage, as they have a pair of horny wings 

 that meet in a straight line down the back, beneath which is a single paii- of 

 membraneous wings neatly folded away. The earwig-*^ is the only other 

 order occurring in Hawaii that at all closely resembles them, and the eai'wigs 

 are easily recognized by the presence of a pair of forceps-like appendages at 

 the posterior end of the bod.v. 



In general it may be said that a i:reat i)er cent oi' the beetles found in 

 Hawaii are species that occur in no othci- jtlace. .Most of the species are small, 

 many of them being almost microscopic in size, and as a nde the indivaduals 

 of a species are not numerous, hence they ai-e difticult to obtain. Tlir colleetor 

 soon learns that their habits vai-y greatly in the (iifCt'i-eiit families and even 

 among the species of the same genera, so that in searching for specimens every 

 possible situation must be examined. The water, earth, sand, crevices in the 

 solid rock, under deca\ing animal and vey-etable imitter. under stones, in the 



^''Apiihr. ^<> Xi/luciiiHt hninilinnonnii. ^' Apis mi'Uijirn. '» Megachile. ^* Coleoptern. 



-" E II pie. I opt era. 



