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A CASE OF PARASITISM OF MELECTA ARM AT A 

 ON ANTHOPHORA ACERVORUM. 



By J. Chakles Johnson, M.A., M.Sc, M.B. 



The genus Anthophora is of world-wide distribution, and 

 contains about one hundred and thirty species, of which four 

 are native to Great Britain. It is a somewhat plump, hairy 

 bee, and, like all the Scopulipedes, possesses the necessary 

 apparatus for gathering and storing pollen for its young, so that 

 the larva on emerging from the egg has an ample store of food. 

 It is a commonplace in the animal kingdom that such parental 

 assiduity should invite the intrusion of a new organism whose 

 offspring would have the advantages that its young host should 

 enjoy, and cause the death of the latter in various ways. 



The insect kingdom so obviously teems with such examples 

 that it has been said that insects may be divided into two great 

 armies, one of which tries to destroy the other, often by intricate 

 relations of parasitism and hyperparasitism. Very frequently 

 the parasite will confine its attentions to one genus or even one 

 species. The latter is well exemplified in the case of Melecta 

 and Anthophora. 



Melecta belongs to the subfamily Cuculince, familiarly called 

 " cuckoo-bees " from their propensity to lay eggs in the nests 

 of other bees, and in them the pollen-collecting brush, so 

 characteristic of the legs of the Scopulipedes, is absent. They 

 are obligate parasites on that account, since they must place 

 their eggs near a store of pollen which they are unable to 

 collect for themselves. 



Anthophora is colonial only in the sense that it is of a 

 gregarious disposition. Their cells are open, and absolutely 

 independent. Each bee constructs its own nest and accumu- 

 lates pollen for its own young only, so that there is no division 

 of labour as in the truly colonial hive-bees. 



An excellent opportunity of studying the habits of Anthophora 



