HYMENOPTEEA-ACULEATA. 421 



this bee in artificial dwellings or hives, for the 

 sake of the wax and honey stored therein by the 

 industrious insects. "For many centuries the 

 Beemaster was a regular labourer employed upon 

 nearly every manorial farm in England. After 

 the Reformation, however, the demand for wax for 

 the candles used at the Mass tell off enormously, 

 and soon after this again the importation of sugar 

 from the West Indies did away with one of the 

 chief uses of honey. Thus the hives kept were 

 fewer, and, as the culture of this valuable insect 

 grew more and more neglected, they were gradu- 

 ally relegated from the fields to the herb garden, 

 and from the farm labourer to the housewife. It is 

 only of recent years that there has been a reac- 

 tion, and the useful and profitable honey bee has 

 come much more to the front again. 



Like the other Aculeates, the honey bee has 

 many enemies and parasites. In the imago 

 state, like other bees, it is often devoured 

 by birds, the culprits being the swift, the swallow, 

 the flycatcher, the great and blue tits, the shrikes 

 and the omnivorous sparrow (particularly in its 

 breeding season), and sometimes the green wood- 

 pecker. The domestic duck also greedily 

 gobbles up bees, quite regardless of their stings. 

 Luckily the bee -eater, Merops apiaster, is prac- 

 tically absent from Britain. Such reptiles as 

 the lizard, the toad and the frog are likewise 

 fond of bees. Among the Aculeate Hymenop- 

 tera, several species prey upon the honey bee. 

 Fortunately the destructive solitary wasp, 

 Philanthus apivorus, which stores up bees in its 

 burrows, does not often cross the Channel from 



