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THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[May 



ance. The members of the genus Oxybelus prey upon Diptera, which 

 they capture and store up as food for their offspring in the burrows 

 which they excavate for deposition of their eggs ; they are most 

 striking examples of what is called " aggressive mimicry " ; preying, 

 as they do, upon Diptera of the small " house-fly" type (Muscida), they 

 are most remarkably similar to quarry. Their mode of capturing their 

 prey is curious ; they have been noticed to alight upon the ground 

 among a number of Diptera, and to run about among the flies pre- 

 tending to be totally unmindful of them ; in this way the foolish flies 

 become accustomed to their presence, and allow them to approach 

 quite close ; suddenly, however, when the Oxbelus has well measured 

 her distance, she darts upon the luckless fly, just as a cat springs upon 

 a mouse, and carries off the unfortunate victim to her burrow ! The 

 genus Oxybelus is easily distinguishable from all other Hymenopteva by 

 its fly-like appearance ; there are several species of the genus, and 

 Mucvonatus can be separated from any of them by the fact of its body 

 being covered with a silvery pubescence, which is absent in the other 

 members of the genus. The insect occurs in June and July, at mid- 

 day, when the sun is bright, and frequents the sandhills of our coasts. 

 It is a scarce and local species, and was taken, apparently in some 

 abundance, upon our Cheshire sandhills by Mr. Matthews, prior to 

 1836 ; it has been captured since in the same locality by the late Mr. 

 B. Cooke. No one has, however, turned it up of recent years, it is 

 therefore very desirable to re-discover it in our district. 



COLLETES CUNICULARIA. 



This is our far famed Wallasey Bee. It is fairly distributed round 

 the sea coasts of Europe, but as far as this country is concerned, it 

 appears to be peculiar to our home district, and is an insect of which 

 we are consequently very proud. It is a large handsome bee, about 

 the size of, and not unlike, a Hive Bee, when on the wing ; even when 

 hovering over the sallow bloom which it loves, it may easily be 

 distinguished, however, from the latter species by its thinner legs ; in 

 the Hive Bee the broad flat hind legs hang conspicuously below the 

 abdomen in flight, identifying it at once. If our Colletes be captured 

 and examined, moreover, it will be found to have a broad, short, 

 double-lobed flat tongue, like that of a wasp, for plastering purposes, 

 instead of the long pointed tongue of the Honey Bee ; Colletes cunicu- 

 laria is, in fact, the only British bee of large size which has a tongue 

 of this description. 



The insect is one of the family of Plastering Bees ; it burrows holes 

 in the sandhills eight to ten inches long, which it plasters inside by 

 means of its flat trowel-like tongue, and lines with a beautiful shining 

 membrance ; of this substance it forms a series of cells, one after the 



