CHELOSTOMA. 455 



The question is, how would the first set have got out ; for they would 

 have heen obliged to have destroyed the second set ? Another question, 

 somewhat similar to the former, is, as the last in this canal of the first 

 brood was the first laid, and of course the earliest in perfection, how 

 could it get out while there were four cells between it and the outlet, 

 independently of the new set ? I suppose it must have staid until the 

 others came to perfection. Another question starts up in the mind : — 

 Were the first and second the same species of bees ? and, if they were, 

 was it ? [something wanting here. — "W. C] 



If the chrysalis at the bottom of the canal be first hatched, it is 

 clear that it must do one of three things : — either it must remain quiet 

 until those more external are hatched; or it must eat its way out 

 through or past the other larvse or chrysalides to the surface ; or it must 

 eat a new passage out from the bottom of the canal to the surface 

 [which last is not the least probable. — W. C.]. 



Of the small Bee which I caught on the St. John's Wort, collecting 



Farina. 



I caught four or five of this species in the month of July, collect- 

 ing farina : they were all females. They are longer than the small 

 common fly, but not thicker. They have two pincers [mandibles] and 

 a proboscis. The proboscis is attached under the head : it first passes 

 a little back under the head, and then folds immediately on itself, 

 passing forwards to the anterior part of the head between the two 

 pincers, lying there as in a groove ; and, when it opens or unfolds for 

 use, it falls back and down. The first fold or joint consists of two 

 horny parts [maxillae], passing nearly parallel to each other, having a 

 joint at the head; the last fold consists of three parts, also horny and 

 passing parallel to each other : the middle one is the broadest, and is an 

 additional one just between the outer ones. There is a soft springy 

 part, I believe feathered, as also with a horny process which is move- 

 able, or has a joint. This is just the contrary way to the situation of 

 the fixing and unfolding of the proboscis of the humble-bee or common 

 bee. They gather their farina on the inside of the hind-legs near the 

 thigh. There are very few of them, and their duration in the summer, 

 I believe, is shorter than any of the others. Where they build their 

 nests I do not know. I once saw one go into a hole of the wall with 

 farina on its legs. I should suspect they are more like the humble-bee 

 than any of the others. Their ovaria I could make but little of: from 

 each of them a small oblong body came of a white colour, very like a 

 small maggot ; I thought it too large for an egg. 



In the morning I saw a vast number of these bees employed upon 



