

168 APIDJE. 



This genus is remarkable in presenting the only instance among 

 our native species of bees in which the male is considerably larger 

 than the female ; this peculiarity is at once understood, and the 

 object of the structural difference apparent, when the habits of the 

 insect are observed. The female is usually attended by the male, and 

 when on the wing, flying from flower to flower, is frequently seized 

 by the male, and carried off out of sight into the air ; hence the 

 necessity for his superiority in size and strength is clearly apparent. 

 In this country only a single species is found ; but upwards of a 

 hundred are described, about forty inhabiting Europe alone. Many 

 species are found in Arabia and Syria ; others are found in Algeria, 

 the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, and 

 Angola ; four or five are known from India ; and others from Brazil 

 and various parts of South America, Chili, Mexico, and the United 

 States. 



Antliidium manicatum has never been observed constructing its 

 own nidus ; and probably it at all times makes use of some cavity in 

 trees, posts, or other situation adapted to its requirements ; its nests 

 are frequently found in the holes perforated in old willow-trees by 

 the larvae of Aromia moschatus or Oossusligniperda, and lined with 

 a woolly down, which the bee collects from various plants, such 

 as the hedge-nettle, Stachys germanica, and the wild lychnis, Agro- 

 stemma coronaria ; from such plants the bee with its broad man- 

 dibles scrapes off the downy covering of the leaves and stems, rolling 

 it up into a little bundle which she carries off to her nidus. The 

 cells are not arranged in the systematic order usually observable in 

 bee architecture ; they are composed of a thin semitransparent mem- 

 brane, each cell being closed with similar membrane after being stored 

 with a suitable supply of pollen and honey, upon which an egg has 

 been deposited ; in this manner cell after cell is constructed, until 

 the cavity chosen is filled with a suitable number, when her labours 

 are completed. 



Nests of a species of Antliidium from Natal are attached to the 

 outside of twigs of bushes or plants, each cell being enveloped in a 

 woolly covering and separate from each other. 



The Rev. Gilbert White, in his ' History of Selborne,' with his 

 usual tact, has described the habit of our British species thus : — 

 " There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden campion for the 

 sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in 

 the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see with what 

 address it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom of 

 a branch, and shaving it bare with the dexterity of a hoop-shaver. 

 When it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies away, 

 holding it secure between its chin and fore legs." 



1. Anthidium manicatum. 



A. atrum, griseo villosum, abdomine maculis lateralibus flavis ; 

 maris abdomine lateribus fasciculato -pilosis, inflexo, ano quin- 

 quedentato. 



