

Insects. 1453 



an orange-yellow pubescence on the tarsi, which sometimes changes 

 to nearly white ; a yellow stripe down all the tibiae, or at times only a 

 spot at their base, in some instances quite obsolete ; the intermediate 

 and posterior tibiae more or less rufo-piceous above at their apex; the 

 segments of the abdomen have an ovate lateral yellow spot, those on 

 the fourth and fifth frequently extending inwards, forming elongate 

 yellow stripes ; the abdomen beneath densely clothed with orange- 

 yellow pubescence. 



Male. — Length 6 — 8 lines. Black, punctate ; mandibles yellow, 

 black at their tips ; the face below the antennae yellow ; the base of 

 the clypeus more or less black, a yellow spot on the vertex above the 

 eyes ; a silvery white pubescence on the face ; the thorax has a thin 

 yellow pubescence above, becoming silvery white beneath, two yellow 

 spots on the tegulae, and the wings fuscous ; the anterior and inter- 

 mediate tibiae more or less yellow at their base and apex, the poste- 

 rior tibiae have also sometimes a spot at the base, or at both base and 

 apex, the first joint of all the tarsi yellow, the calcaria yellow, the 

 tibiae and tarsi fringed with silvery white hair ; the abdomen very va- 

 riable in its markings, with a lateral ovate yellow spot on the first 

 three segments, two lateral spots on the fourth and fifth, and one ob- 

 long lateral spot on the sixth, or with a single spot on the first four 

 laterally, two on the fifth, and one on the sixth, in some instances the 

 spots are nearly obsolete, or varying in size and number ; the sixth 

 segment has a lateral curved spine, the seventh is tridentate, the cen- 

 tral tooth or spine is short and slender, the lateral ones stout and in- 

 curved. 



This insect is abundant about London ; it is very partial to the 

 flowers of the dead nettle. I used to find the nests of this bee in 

 some old willow-trees in the Battersea fields ; the holes chosen were 

 the tunnels formed by the Cossus ligniperda. The cells of this bee are 

 externally covered with a white downy substance, which the bee 

 scrapes off woolly-leaved plants, as detailed by Mr. Kirby ; I have 

 frequently captured the female conveying a bundle of the substance 

 to her nest. I have usually found about twelve or fourteen cells in a 

 nest ; within the external loose covering of this woolly substance, is 

 one more compact, and within this she stores up the food for her 

 young, which, when full-fed, spin an oval cocoon of a tough con- 

 sistency, and of a dark brown colour ; when the bee arrives at the 

 perfect state, which it does not until the spring of the following 

 year, and is ready to escape, it cuts round the top of the cocoon until 

 it can push it up in the manner of a lid, and so makes its escape > this 



