Insects. 



2201 



the females : two of each sex were produced from one stick. The 

 food doubtless consists of some elaboration of honey, similar to that 

 stored up by Ceratinae. The fact of these bees not being furnished with 

 any structural apparatus for conveying pollen, led to the hypothetical 

 opinion of their parasitism, showing the utter inutility of such deduc- 

 tions. 



In the month of June, 1846, I reared three specimens of Hylaeus 

 signatus from a bramble-stick : the tube at the further extremity was 

 coated with a thin substance, resembling very much the slimy track of 

 a snail, not separable from the remaining pith of the bramble. On 

 opening the stick, I found what I probably mistook for the cocoon 

 of the larva, but which I believe to have been the thin pellicle which 

 encloses the pupa. Mr. Thwaites exposed the larvae, so as to watch 

 their transformations : it is to the careful observations of such natu- 

 ralists that the science is indebted for invaluable records of insect de- 

 velopment, and for clearing away all mere hypothetical conclusions. 



1. Head of Hylaeus annulatus, 2. 2. Head of H. annularis, 2. 3. Head of H. cornutus, 2- 



4. Head of H. dilatatus, <J. 5. Head of H. plantaris, g. 6. Intermediate leg of ditto. 7. Underside 

 of the abdomen of ditto. 



Genus. — Hylaeus, Fab. 



Prosopis, Fab., Jurine, Panzer, St. Fargeau. Hylaus, Latr., Curtis, 



Smith, Ent. Trans. 1842. Sphex, Panzer. 



Generic characters. — Head subtriangular, as wide as the thorax ; 

 the stemmata placed in a triangle on the vertex ; the maxillary palpi 



