I IO 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[May 



species, and ensures its accurate identification upon examination 

 with a lens. The females of this little bee appear first in May, and 

 males and females are found together in August and September, when 

 they are partial to the flowers of the blackberry ; their burrows are 

 excavated gregariously, in banks at the side of ditches along a high- 

 road or elsewhere. 

 OSMIA XANTHOMELANA. 



This insect belongs to the beautiful and interesting genus of 

 Mason Bees ; they are so called from their habit of constructing their 

 nest cells, of diverse forms and in various situations, of mud, grains of 

 sand, &c, cemented together by a kind of mortar secreted by the 

 insect. These Bees belong to the sub-section called Dasygasters, or 

 hairy bellied, the underside of the abdomen of the female being 

 densely clothed with short hair, upon which the bee conveys the pollen 

 from a rifled flower to its burrow. The Osmias may be roughly 

 distinguished from the other genera by their medium to small size, 

 mostly three-and-a-half to five lines in length, and by the oval shape 

 of the abdomen. O. xanthomelana is one of three black species, the 

 other two being distinguishable from it by somewhat minute 

 characteristics, which cannot be gone into here. This bee may most 

 easily be identified, however, by its very unique and interesting nest ; 

 this is usually constructed at the roots of grass, but occasionally in a 

 hollow chamber about an inch under-ground. The cells are most 

 beautifully constructed in the form of little pitchers ; they are made 

 of mud and small pebbles. These little pitchers are about five or six 

 lines high, round at the bottom and flat at the top, closed with a 

 cleverly made lid, which the bee constructs after it has laid its egg 

 inside and duly provisioned the cell with honey and pollen for the 

 nourishment of the future grub. A nest usually consists of four to six 

 of these beautiful little cells, placed side by side. It may be mentioned 

 " en passant " that the natives of the Fiji Islands are said to have 

 copied their pottery from the model of a wild Bee's cell — probably 

 an Osmia allied to our Xanthomelana. The species occurs in April and 

 May ; the nests are then constructed, and eggs laid, which duly 

 develop to maturity by August or September ; the perfect insect then 

 emerges, and hybernates till spring ; it is said to frequent, and to be 

 very partial to, ground ivy. The life history of this interesting little 

 bee was first worked out near Liverpool by Mr. G. Waterhouse, who 

 took it in abundance at its nests here in 1835 ; it has since been taken 

 at two or three other places in England, but is still a rare species ; 

 unfortunately none of our local collectors know where to find it in this 

 district now, and it would be very desirable indeed to re-discover it in 

 our neighbourhood. 



There are, of course, many other species of Hymenoptera-Aculeata 



