420 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



P. barbutellus, Kirb., nee Sin. — Frequent in the district, 

 as Oxton and West Kirby ; Rock Ferry, J.T.G. ; 

 Rainhill, H.H.H. ; near Manchester, J.R.H. 



P. eampestris, Panz. — Rossiellus, Kirb., Thorns. — Wide- 

 spread ; specially noted near Manchester, J.R.H. ; 

 Knowsley, H.H.H. ; Chester and Delamere, 

 E.C.T. and R.N. Two black specimens taken at 

 Chester, R.N. ; this variety is frequent just over 

 our borders in Staffordshire. 



P. quadricolor, Lep. — Barbutellus, Srn. — Only records so 

 far are one exceedingly small female taken by 

 the writer at Bidston, and two dark varieties at 

 Chester, E.C.T. 

 Apis, Linn. — The most typical social genus ; it contains 

 one species only in Britain, A. mettiftca,th.e Honey 

 Bee, whose well-known economy and intelligence 

 makes it the most highly developed and wonderful 

 of all bees, or perhaps of any insect. The com- 

 munities of this species are very large indeed, 

 sometimes amounting to 40,000 or 50,000 inhabi- 

 tants ; they consist of female or queen, males, 

 and workers, or imperfect females ; their dwell- 

 ings are most complex structures, full of 

 hexagonal waxen cells, of marvellous design and 

 workmanship, for breeding and food-storing 

 purposes. 



A. mellifica, Linn. — Whether this species was ever wild 

 in this country, nesting in a state of nature in 

 cavities among rocks, in holes in trees, &c, as it 

 still does in some parts of the world, we cannot 

 say. Certain it is that the honey bee has been 

 domesticated by man almost from time imme- 

 morial. The successive inhabitants of these 

 islands, Celt, Saxon and Norman, have all kept 



