ANTHOPHORA RETUSA. 451 



and female ; that is, none of the females have properties distinct from 

 the others, constituting ' queens,' < lahourers,' or one living longer than 

 the rest, as the queen humble-hee. The males in solitary bees are not 

 so readily made out as in the family-bees ; and when of a particular 

 colour, distinct from that of the female, it is still more difficult. The 

 only mode of detecting the male, is by having their nests and finding 

 the males in them. It is possible they may be in pairs, or they may 

 copulate promiscuously, as they do not breed a colony. This division, 

 which I have called " solitary bees," are divisible in the same way in 

 which I divided the whole tribe, \iz. respecting their food, the parts 

 formed for catching or collecting it, as also appearances, shape, <fcc. 

 They are all very similar to each other in their mode of propagation, 

 and not at all similar to the family-bees. They make no comb, nor any 

 cells for the young so arranged as to be called comb ; but they look out 

 for a hole, either in a piece of wood, in a brick wall, or in loam, whose 

 face is perpendicular : one species passes downwards [burrows] on a 

 smooth grass-plot. Into these passages they deposit farina, which they 

 bring in on their legs ; and upon this they deposit an egg, which hatches 

 into a maggot, goes into the chrysalis state, and comes forth at the 

 proper time. The period of their maggot-state is very short, for the 

 store of food is but very small ; but the time they are in the chrysalis 

 state is very considerable ; for, as they breed but once a year in one 

 summer, the chrysalis is quiet through the whole remaining part of the 

 summer and the winter, and comes out in the month of April or May. 



The Black Humble-Bee [Anthophora retusa, Latr.] . 



This species may be reckoned the second of the wild bee in this 

 country, and the first of the solitary ; because it comes nearest to the 

 humble-bee, or first of the wild. The queen comes nearer to the size 

 of the humble-bee, being about the size of the labourers of that bee, 

 and is in shape exactly like the humble-bee. This species have no 

 labourers, and therefore there is no society, only the male and female ; 

 but how far that male and female are to be considered a pair, as in 

 birds, or only meet accidentally, is not easily determined. I should 

 doubt the former ; for they are not seen in pairs, nor does the male 

 concern himself in the provision for propagation, as the male does in 

 birds. They only live [an active life] the same summer in which they 

 come forth : but the whole life may be said to be nearly a year and a 

 half; one year being taken up in the first two stages of their life. I 

 believe the first or maggot stage, in which it feeds, is not above a 

 month. The chrysalis stage may be divided into two ; one which, in 

 structure, is nearly the same as the maggot, but is changing ; and the 



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