390 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



CoLLETID.E. 



Colletes, Latr. — Solitary bees which burrow, frequently in 

 large colonies, either in sandy banks (C. 

 daviesana and cunicularia), in the softer parts of 

 mud walls, or similar situations. Their little tun- 

 nels are usually straight, from six to ten inches 

 long, with a series of cells opening therefrom. 

 The cells are lined by the female bee with a 

 delicate and glistening membrane, something 

 like goldbeaters' skin ; each contains an egg, 

 and sufficient honey and pollen, mixed into a 

 little cake, for the nourishment of the future 

 grub, which the parent bee herself never lives 

 to see. 



Colletes is sometimes attacked by another bee of 

 the inquiline genus Epeolus. This robber lays 

 its eggs in the carefully excavated and pro- 

 visioned cells of its host ; and these eggs, hatch- 

 ing first, produce grubs which consume the food 

 stored up by the Colletes for her offspring, thus 

 causing the latter to perish. The grubs of the 

 Hymenopteroii Chrysis ignita sometimes devour 

 the larvse of the bee, and so do those of the little 

 Chalcid Morwdontomerus. Among the Diptera, 

 Miltogramma imnctatus feeds upon the iarvse of 

 Colletes, and various Forficulm are often very 

 destructive to them. Another enemy, on the 

 Continent, at any rate, is that curious Coleop- 

 teron Sitaris colletis, the larva of which, going 

 through remarkable transformations, devours 

 first the egg of the bee and then the honey stored 

 in the cell. 

 ('. succincta, Linn. — Occurs inland with us, where 

 heather grows, as at Delamere, B.C. and R.N., at 



