Insects. 265 



don's * Magazine of Natural History,' but I did not then know with 

 what it provisioned its nest ; this year I have made the discovery : it 

 stores up a number of small green caterpillars, which it coils round 

 with the most beautiful regularity, within the excavated bramble 

 stick, placing them alternately right and left. 



Osmia atricapilla. The first specimen which I took of this rare 

 little bee, I observed enter a bramble stick which Epipone Isevipes 

 had previously excavated ; this was three or four years ago. I have 

 never been successful in finding its nest until this season, although 1 

 have occasionally taken specimens, all at the same spot, for it is very 

 local as well as rare. I this year observed one excavating a dead 

 bramble stick ; this bee I captured, and after diligent search 1 saw 

 another enter an excavated stick, which I found on examination con- 

 tained two masses of pollen and honey, and upon each mass was an 

 oblong egg, tapering a little towards either end ; it was about a line 

 in length, and quite transparent. I shall make careful notes of the 

 development of the bees, if I am fortunate enough to rear them. 



Rhinohatus planus. I took a single specimen in June four years 

 ago, about half a mile from the spot where I captured so many this 

 season. I found the first on the common thistle, which grows on 

 every bank, and in every lane and field. I have visited the same 

 field in which I found it every year since, without success. I now 

 find that it frequents a different species of thistle, in marshy ground : 

 I do not know the name, but the thistle grows as high as five feet, in 

 some instances, a number of stalks springing from the same root ; the 

 leaves are merely rudimental on the stalks, not longer than two inches 

 or so, and the stems covered with fine prickles quite clothed with 

 them ; the flower is purple ; one or two plants had white flowers, but 

 the same stalks and leaves. I generally found them in pairs ; I think 

 in no instance more than one pair on a plant, and generally on the 

 smaller plants. I had eight hours of uninterrupted bog-trotting, and 

 only got up to my knees once before I captured the twenty-one spe- 

 siimens. I could not find a specimen on any thistle which did not 

 grow in the marshy ground. Frederick Smith. 



5, High St., Newington Butts, 

 July, 1843. 



Note on the Economy of a Fossorial Hymenopterous Insect. As you invite the com- 

 munication of facts relative to Natural History, I will give you an anecdote of an in- 

 sect that came under my notice whilst residing in Staffordshire some years ago ; at the 



