412 



A.y ECOXOMIC EXTOMOLOGY. 



against bumble-bees, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain 

 clo\-er-seed, and for this particular purpose those insects should 

 be carefully cherished. They are sometimes a nuisance when in 

 the course of mowing or reaping a nest is disturbed, but the 

 slight annoyance then caused scarcely warrants the complete de- 

 struction of the nest which so uniformly fohows. The farmer 

 Avho destroys ever}^ nest of bumble-bees on his land destroys a 

 series of insects than which none are more useful to him, particu- 

 larly if he raises fruit or has any desire to obtain red clover-seed. 



The long-tongued bees may be either social or solitary, and 

 there is no superficial character known to me by which the solitary 

 bees can be readily distinguished from the social forms, except by 

 the presence of the wax-producing organs in the latter. The 

 habits of the bees difter greatly: some are cuckoos, some have been 

 supposed to be parasitic, while the majority are undoubtedly 

 honest workers and provide decently for their families. ]\Ianv of 

 them, as has been already stated, are carpenters, and some of them 

 are tailors or upholsterers as well. — that is to say. after ha^-ing 

 bored out the wooden tunnel in which the family is to be raised, 

 the cells are constructed of leaf fragments. Rose leaves or those 

 of other plants of the family Rosacea are frequently noticed with 

 circular or semicircular pieces cut from the edges. This is done 

 by a bee of this tribe, usually a Megachile. and these little frag- 

 ments are used in constructing a somewhat thimble-shaped cell. 

 When one of them is completed it is filled with pollen and honey 

 and an egg is laid in it ; then another is built on top of it, and so 

 on until the burrow is completely filled. As the undermost 

 specimen matures first, it bores to the surface through a hole at 

 the end, to avoid the necessitv of working its way through all its 

 younger relatives above it. The largest of our carpenters is the 

 Xylocopa virginica. which is generally mistaken for a Boinbus, 

 being fully as large, as robust, and colored yelloAv and black, 

 with a metallic blue reflection on the abdomen ; but the head is 

 very much broader than in any bumble-bee. and equal to the 

 width of the thorax itself The eyes also are larger and white 

 or yellowish in color, distinguishing the insect at once from true 

 Bombus. This species makes galleries half an inch in diameter 

 in the solid wood, and raises a considerable family in the course 

 of the year. The partitions between the cells are made in this 



