11. MEGACHILE. 171 



The number of known species is about 300 ; they are numerous 

 alike in the tropics and in northern latitudes. The type of the 

 genus is perhaps the most widely distributed species of the Apidse, 

 being found in Southern Europe, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, 

 and Lapland, also in Canada and at Hudson's Bay. Fifty species are 

 known from India, China, and the various islands in the eastern 

 archipelago, forty from Australia ; but no species has been received 

 from New Zealand. Africa has furnished between forty and fifty 

 species ; and others may be yet found in Madagascar, the Mauritius, 

 and other adjacent islands. South America has at present yielded 

 between fifty and sixty species ; and about the same number have 

 come from Mexico and the States of North America, — thus making 

 the present known number of species, as already stated, about 300 ; 

 and many are yet doubtless unknown to science. 



The habits of the British, and, indeed, of all the known European 

 species appear to be uniform in one respect : they all excavate bur- 

 rows, either in the ground or in wood ; and these they line either with 

 the cuttings of leaves or of the petals of flowers. Some of the exotic 

 species have a different habit. Megacliile Janata, a common Indian 

 insect, constructs tubes of agglutinated particles of sand ; the same 

 is also the habit of another Indian species, M. proximo,. 



Megachile centuncularis burrows usually in wood ; frequently, 

 however, it does so in the ground ; and I have seen it entering holes 

 in the mortar of walls. These it lines with cuttings of the leaves of 

 different trees and plants, making use of those of the rose, the 

 laburnum, the lilac, and of various kinds of sallows ; but on two oc- 

 casions I observed it cutting the petals of the scarlet geranium, pro- 

 bably for the purpose of lining the cells. I am inclined to think so, 

 because I frequently found the cells of Megachile argentata, which 

 burrows in the ground, lined with the yellow petals of Lotus corni- 

 culatus. The outer covering of the cells of this little bee is usually 

 cuttings of rose-leaves ; and the circular pieces used for closing the 

 cell I have found to be those of the thick leaves of the buckthorn. 

 The plants it prefers frequenting appear to be Echium vulgare and 

 the hare's-foot trefoil, Trifolium arvense. I have frequently observed 

 Mutilla ephippium entering the burrows of this bee, but have not 

 succeeded in rearing it from the nests. 



Megachile willughbiella is the most common of the British species. 

 It is widely distributed, and very abundant in most parts of the 

 country. In Kirby's ' Monographia ' is given an extract from Sir John 

 Hill's translation of Swammerdam's ' Book of Nature.' In a note, 

 Sir John says that he saw thousands of the nests of this species in 

 Lincolnshire in willow trees. In the British Museum is preserved a 

 piece of a willow tree in which are numerous burrows of this bee ; 

 some of them are exposed, and in one are no less than thirteen cells. 

 In one case one common entrance leads to three burrows. The flat 

 end of the block is about 2| inches square ; and in this space are no 

 less than ten burrows. 



Megachile maritima usually burrows in the ground. I have not 

 observed it in any other situation. Its nests are found in the cliffs 



