274 BRITISH BEES, 



are the only two spots where I have known it to be found. 

 It is one of the most vivid fliers among the bees, and 

 darts about, especially during brilliant sunshine in June, 

 with the velocity of a sand-martin, and its note is shrill, 

 but harmonious ; it is not often caught upon flowers, 

 being so extremely alert, but has been seen to visit the 

 common Viper's Bugloss {Echium vulgare) . TheM.odon- 

 tura, the last of the second division, which is known only 

 in a single male specimen in the cabinets of the British 

 Museum, is one of Dr. Leach's west country captures, of 

 which nothing precise is known, and it is only noticed 

 here on account of the singular peculiarity of the arma- 

 ture of the apex of its abdomen, which brings it closer 

 to the genus Osmia in that particular, although the ma- 

 jority of the males of the genus have the terminal seg- 

 ment slightly furcated. 



In these observations I have commenced with the 

 division which contains the type, and to which the pre- 

 sent name of the genus would attach from that circum- 

 stance, were it ever thought desirable to separate those 

 species, which have dilated anterior tarsi in the males, 

 into a distinct genus, but which I could scarcely recom- 

 mend. In the arrangement of the species in the pre- 

 ceding list, I have placed these latter first, from their 

 more symmetrical appearance in the cabinet, by leading 

 down to the terminal smaller species in due order, from 

 these larger and more conspicuous ones. 



The M. Willughbiella and maritima prefer decaying 

 wood, and they have been found upon decaying Willows 

 in the Midland Counties in extreme abundauce ; they 

 might be called gregarious were the material within 

 ■which they burrow connected in a continuous plane. 

 The M. Willughbiella makes use of the leaves of the 



