170 Bees and their Counterfeits. 



abode, and attracting no notice whatever from the bees, in 

 whose nursery it has performed the odious act of eating a baby 

 bee, and appropriating its comfortable cradle cell. The stolid 

 unconsciousness with which the bees allow this insect vampire 

 to' pass out and escape from the scene of his horrid proceedings 

 with impunity, has induced some naturalists to believe that the 

 carnivorous Volucella owes its safety to its complete disguise in 

 the colouring of the bee, which is supposed to be so perfect as 

 to deceive the bees themselves into the belief that these strangers 

 are members of their own fraternity. Mr. "Westwood, quoting 

 Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their admirable work, in which 

 the habits and instincts of British insects were first classified 

 and grouped together in a pleasantly readable form, makes the 

 following statement on the likeness of the Volucella to the 

 bee : — " This similarity to the humble-bee is of eminent service 

 to the insects which deposit their eggs in the nests of those 

 bees, an admirable provision of Nature, since, as Messrs. Kirby 

 and Spence observe, ' did these intruders venture themselves 

 among humble-bees in a less kindred form, their lives would 

 probably pay the forfeit of their presumption.'' " This state- 

 ment, however, though appearing so plausible, is not borne out 

 by analogy, there being many parasites on bees which do not 

 bear the slightest resemblance to the insects whose nests they 

 invade. Not only are some of the Diptera, who deposit their 

 eggs in the nests of bees, very unlike the bees whose homes 

 they infest, but even the parasitic bees themselves do not 

 always resemble the bees whose nests they appropriate. For 

 instance, the species JEucera longicornis has a broad brownish 

 body, without any conspicuous mark, while its parasitic relative, 

 Nomada sex-fasciata, has the narrow body of a wasp, and, as its 

 name implies, six conspicuous yellow bands on the abdomen, 

 which with the intermediate black spaces, make it a very dis- 

 tinct-looking creature indeed. 



In some of the exotic bees more especially, the distinct 

 aspects of the harvesting bee and the parasite are very striking ; 

 they are, in fact, so much so, that the insects might be thought 

 to belong to entirely different families. The beautiful Brazilian 

 bee, Euglossa dimidiata (No. 3 in the coloured plate), has an 

 attendant parasite as totally unlike it as it is possible to conceive 

 of insects of the same order. Euglossa dimidiata is one of the 

 most beautifully and variously coloured of the whole bee tribe. 

 The specimen from which our representation is taken, was cap- 

 tured by Mr. Bates, at Para, in the Brazils ; and it is found in 

 other tropical parts of South America. Latreille described this 

 handsome species in Schomberg's Fauna of British Guiana; but 

 it had been previously described by Fabricius, from specimens 

 taken at Cayenne, and named by him Apis dimidiata ; subse- 



