192 Mellifeka. INSECTS. Andrenid.®. 
wasp. It is widely distributed. From a nest of this 
species numerous specimens of the Chrysis ignita, and 
five of the Anomalon vesparum — an ichneumonidous 
insect — which are parasites, have been bred. 
VESPA ABBOREA, one of the Tree wasps, was first 
taken by Mr. Smith in 1836, near Wakefield in York- 
shire. It builds its nest in fir-trees. 
VESPA SYLVESTRIS, though a Tree wasp, has occa- 
sionally been found inhabiting an underground nest. 
THE HORNET (Vespa crahro) is the largest of the 
British wasps, the female being from thirteen to four- 
teen lines long, while the workers and males are from 
nine to eleven. In Hampshire it is very abundant, 
usually building in decaying trees, sometimes under 
the eaves of houses, and occasionally even in a bank. 
It has been observed carrying on its building opera- 
tions on a fine moonlight night, as briskly as during 
the daytime. The rare Velleius dilatatus, one of the 
staphylinidous beetles, is found in its nest. 
Worthy Edward Topsell, whose “native soyl” was 
Duckworth in Huntingdonshire,* reckoned wasps and 
hornets, and even bees, by no means interlopers among 
serpents. He introduces them in his foolscap folio 
history between the asp and the boa — the caterpillars 
connecting the hornets with these great tropical Ophi- 
dia — one of which, distended to a frightful extent, is 
engaged in swallowing an infant of considerable size. 
He evidently observed hornets at his native home, and 
remarks that “ their combes are wrought with greater 
cunning, more exquisite art, and curious conceit, than 
those either of wasps or bees, and these excellent de- 
visers do make them one while in the trunks of trees, 
and sometimes again in the earth, increasing them at 
their pleasure with more floors and buildings, according 
to the increase of their issue, making them smooth and 
bright, decking and trimming them with a certain 
tough or binding slime or gelly gathered from the 
gummy leaves of plants.” This, Master Topsell, is 
a mistake; careful observers now know, that wasps 
form this binding material themselves. 
Group— ANTHOPHILA or MELLIFEKA.— 
The Bees. 
Well may the bees be called Anthophila, or Flower- 
lovers, the name invented for the tribe by Latreille. 
Without flowers they would not be Mellifera, that 
is, Honey-gatherers. This tribe, in all the solitary 
species, consists of two sexes, males and females. In 
the social species, to these two sexes is added what is 
called a neuter or worker, which is in reality an abor- 
tive female. The females and workers are generally 
furnished with apparatus for conveying pollen ; they 
are armed with a sting. 
The antennai of the females and workers have twelve 
joints ; in the males there are thirteen of these articu- 
lations. The abdomen of the females consists of six 
segments or rings, while in the males there is one more. 
In addition to the two lateral compound eyes, they 
have three simple eyes, called ocelli or stemmata, on 
the crown of the head. The tongue, so important an 
♦ He tells us so at p. 659 of the work, of which his History 
of Serpents forms the second book, published iu 1658. 
organ in this tribe, is lanceolate, or filiform. In the 
larva state these insects are fed on pollen or honej', 
stored up by the parent. Several of the tribes are 
parasitical; that is, they collect no honey or pollen, 
hut consume food stored up for the legitimate inhabi- 
tant of the nest. In these insects the basal joint of.the 
hind tarsi is dilated into an oblong or subtriangular 
plate, most frequently rough on the inside, and 
provided, except in the parasites, with instruments for 
collecting and caiTying pollen. The maxillae and 
labium are elongated, and often form a proboscis which 
can be folded several times beneath the head, and is 
useful in reaching into the long tubes of flowers. 
Famiey I.— ANDRENIDtE-. 
This family derives its name from its typical genus 
Andrena, of the habits of which more will be said 
hereafter. The following are the eharacters of this 
family: — The mentum is elongated, the labium at its 
extremity is small, and either spear-shaped or cordate, 
with a small ear-shaped lobe on each side. It is either 
straight or very slightly deflexed iu some, and reflexed 
in others, and considerably shorter than the tubular 
mentum, the labium and terminal maxillary lobes not 
forming an elongated proboscis; the labial palpi are 
four -jointed and resemble the maxillary palpi, which 
are always six-jointed. The mandibles are simple, or 
end in one or two notches. The antennse are elbowed, 
the hind legs are generally completely clothed with 
hairs, the trochanters and femora in the females are 
pollenigerous, the basal joint of hind tarsi is never 
externally dilated into an angle, and the second joint 
of the tarsi arises from the centre of the lower edge of 
the preceding joint. 
The insects of this family are all solitary, and con- 
sist of males and females ; the latter collect pollen 
from flowers, which, with the addition of a little honey, 
they form into a kind of paste, which is the food of 
their grubs. They burrow in the ground, and deposit 
an egg on a supply of this paste sufficient for the rear- 
ing of the grub. 
Genus Colletes. — In the genus Colletes, of which 
there are four British species, the ocelli are placed 
in a line on the vertex. The wings have one mar- 
ginal and three complete submarginal cells. The 
economy of this genus of insects was graphically de- 
scribed by Reaumur, who found them constructing their 
burrows in the interstices of stone walls. Our account 
of the bees is chiefly compiled from Mr. Smith’s mono- 
graph of the bees of Great Britain, published in 1855. 
The Apis Daviesana is very abundant in many 
sandy districts, particularly in the county of Kent. 
These insects form burrows, which are from eight to 
ten inches in length. At the further end they are 
lined with a very thin, transparent, membranaceous 
covering, resembling gold-beaters’ skin. “ The insect 
having stored up a sufficient supply of pollen and honey 
in a semifluid state, closes up the cell with a cap of 
the same substance as the lining of the tube. This 
cap is stretched flat across, like the parchment on a 
drum-head ; a little within she next constructs a con- 
cave cap, serving as the end of the cell ; her former 
j 
