386 Beautiful Exotic Bees. 



usual apparatus for collecting honey, has been recently proved 

 a honey producer nevertheless. Its nest has been discovered 

 in tubes formed in the main stems of the bramble ; and in the 

 nest, filmy cells containing liquid honey. In the sub-family 

 " acutilingues," also, the genus Sphecodes, though without the 

 usual polleniferous organs, and consequently thought to be 

 parasitic, has been watched by that indefatigable entomological 

 observer Mr. F. Smith of the British Museum, while in the act 

 of forming its burrow ; an act which appears to afford conclu- 

 sive evidence in favour of the non-parasitic habits of this genus 

 of bees. Thus, some of the splendid foreign bees which have 

 been pronounced parasitic on grounds similar to those above 

 described may yet prove to be honey -makers, or at all events pol- 

 len collectors. Among the most conspicuous of the fine exotic 

 bees figured in the annexed plate, is the truly splendid insect 

 Xylocopa nobilis (No. 6), not one of the wood-boring, or carpenter 

 bees, as they have been termed. This fine insect was captured 

 by Mr. Wallis in the island of Celebes, an almost unknown col- 

 lecting ground, from whence we may hope to receive many 

 others new and splendid additions to our lists of exotic insects. 

 The body of this fine bee is of the richest conceivable velvet 

 black, bearing a rich brown bloom upon it — this deep ground 

 colour is banded with transverse stripes of the richest gold 

 colour — the two central stripes having a peculiarly bright and 

 sparkling effect from their extreme narrowness. The wings 

 are semi-opaque, and their colour modulates from a deep 

 iudigo-violet in the centre to a rich bronzy green at the extre- 

 mities ; the violet becoming nearly crimson where the wings 

 join the body. 



The terms, carpenter bees, upholsterer bees, mason bees, 

 etc., which are, it must be owned, somewhat fanciful, were in- 

 vented by the ingenious and indefatigable French naturalist, 

 Reaumur, who intended by such names to convey the idea 

 that his " carpenter bees" worked in wood, his " mason bees" 

 in stone, or with stony cement, etc. 



The amount of carpenter's work done, however, by the bees 

 of the genus Xylocopa, a scientific term which conveys the same 

 meaning as the popular name, consists merely in boring, or 

 otherwise forming a burrow in wood ; within Avhich are formed 

 separate cells, each destined to receive an egg, and a certain 

 quantity of food for the young larva ; some species stealing up 

 the entrance with a cement formed of clay and a glutinous 

 secretion mixed with it by the bee, as a security against 

 the entrance of parasites. The carpenter bees do not live in 

 communities, but in solitary pairs — the female doing all the 

 carpenter work, and, as it would seem, every other kind of 

 work also ; the male leading a life of indolent pleasure. Nearly 



