293 BRITISH BEES. 



these same segments emarginate at the extremity, and 

 the emargination fringed with hair; the claws bifid." 



NATIVE SPECIES. 



1. papaveris, Latreille. (Plate XIV. fig. 2 c? ? •) 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Named by St. Fargeau from avQo'i, a flower, and 

 Koirr], a cutting or incision, from its habit of cutting sec- 

 tions out of the petals of the common scarlet poppy with 

 which to line the cells it forms within the cylinder it 

 excavates, just as Megachile does with the leaves of 

 various plants. It is noticed as British upon the faith 

 of the specimens introduced by Leach into the cabinets 

 of the British Museum and presumptively caught in the 

 west or south-west of England, a region rich in rarities. 

 Eennie in fact tells us that he has found it at Largs, in 

 Scotland. One of Leach's specimens I received in ex- 

 change from that establishment in 1842, and which is 

 now in the possession of Mr. Desvignes, to whom my 

 collections passed in the following year. This genus 

 forms a sort of combination between the genera Mega- 

 chile and Osmia, it having the upholstering habits of the 

 former in the mode with which it lines its nest, and the 

 general habit of the latter. At a first glance, before its 

 habits were known or its structure examined, even an 

 experienced entomologist might have placed it under Os- 

 mia, as an unrecognised species, for it very strongly re- 

 sembles the Osmia leucomelana. This proves how very 

 inconclusive habit is as an index to habits, the latter of 

 these insects drilling into the pith of brambles, and the 

 Anthocopa tunnelling cylinders into the hardest trodden 

 roads or pathways and lining them with its crimson hang- 

 ings. 



