HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



371 



places itself in its cell with its head downwards, and thus is 

 necessitated, when arrived at its last state, to pierce its cell 

 in this direction. ^ 



Ceratina alhilahris of Spinola, who has given an inter- 

 esting account of its manners, forms its cell upon the general 

 plan of the bee just described, but, more economical of labour, 

 chooses a branch of briar or bramble, in the pith of which 

 she excavates a canal about a foot long, and one line, or some- 

 times more, in diameter, with from eight to twelve cells se- 

 parated from each other by partitions of particles of pith 

 glued together ^ ; and from the dead sticks of the same plants, 

 in which they had formed their cells in a similar way, MM. 

 Dufour and Perris have bred in the sandy district of the 

 Landes in the south-west of France not fewer than twelve 

 distinct species of wild bees and other Hymenoptera, namely, 

 four species of Osmia, two of Ceratina, three Odynerus, 

 two of Solenius, and Trypoxylon Jigulus, besides fifteen species 

 of parasitic Hymenoptera of the genera Stelis, Prosopis, Ich- 

 neumon, Chrysis, &c., making in all twenty-seven species of 

 hymenopterous insects obtained from this prolific habitat, for 

 which, too, they were indebted for very rare insects, which 

 they had never before met with.^ Mr. Thwaites has been 

 also very successful in obtaining Hymenoptera from this source, 

 having bred from dead bramble sticks found near Bristol 

 Hylceus annularis and a new species, Ceratina alhilahris Sp. cy~ 

 anea K., Osmia leucomelana, Epipone levipes, Cemonus unicolor, 

 Spilomena Troglodytes, a new species of Trypoxylon, and an 

 unascertained one of Cladius, besides seven species of para^ 

 sitic Hymenoptera, including Stelis minuta, Chrysis cyanea, 

 Hedychrum auratum, Cryptus hellosus, and three other Ich- 

 neumonidae, in all, sixteen species. — Crahro tihialis, which M. 

 Perris says is parasitic on Hymenoptera residing in bramble- 

 sticks (^Ann. Soc, Ent, de France, ix. 407.), has been also 

 found in this habitat near Bristol by Thomas Lighton, Esq. 



Such are the curious habitations of the carpenter bees 

 and their analogues. Next I shall introduce you to the 



1 Reaum. vi. 39—52. Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 189. Apis. **. a. 2. P. 



2 Jinn, du Mus. x. 236. ^ 



3 Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, ix. 1 — 53. 



B B 2 



