May, 1889. 
WILD BEES. 
115 
another. In this respect they seem to surpass all other groups 
of insects. 
Some of our species, indeed, appear to restrict their visits 
entirely to one species of flower. Andrena floreci appears to 
visit only the blossoms of the briony (Bryonia dioica), and 
two other species of this genus (A. Hattorfiana and Cetii) are 
only found on the common Scabious (Scabiosa arvensis). 
Moreover, a very large number of our bees, though they visit 
different flowers in different localities, yet confine their 
attention to one species in any one locality ; and though 
some species of bees visit a considerable number of different 
flowers, yet the individuals of these species, only in very rare 
instances, visit first one kind of flower and then another. 
All bees have, on some parts at least, branched or feathery 
hairs, amongst which the pollen grains are readily caught, 
and these are the most common kind of all. 
Another very common form of hair, is marked by a spiral 
thickening, and is found more or less numerously in the pollen- 
brushes on the tibice, and it is of this kind of hair that the 
ventral pollen-brushes are composed. On the tarsi may be 
found broad, flat hairs, or hairs with dilated and flattened 
apices , for removing the pollen which adheres to the body. 
The only other structure which I need refer to is the tongue. 
In its least developed ( Colletes and Prosopis ) form in bees, it 
closely resembles that of the wasp, as one would expect from 
the fact that the bees follow next after the wasps in the 
natural order: in these it is short, broad, and bilobed at the 
apex. In the genera Anthophora and Bombus it reaches its 
greatest development, so that some of these species are 
enabled to obtain the nectar from the honeysuckle and other 
flowers which no other of our bees can reach. Between the 
long slender organ of these two genera and the short wasp¬ 
like tongue of Colletes is a long series of intermediate stages 
in development. 
Turning now to the enemies of bees, a few may be 
noticed here which are more or less indiscriminate in their 
attacks. Others which are only obnoxious to the genera I 
have selected for this paper, or are more obnoxious to these 
than any other, will be discussed under those genera. 
To pass over the insectivorous birds and other vertebrates, 
some of which destroy a considerable number of these insects, 
there is one enemy from the attacks of which few of our wild 
bees are altogether exempt. 
I am alluding to the Forficula, commonly called earwigs, 
and the destruction they cause of such species as form 
colonies can hardly be estimated. Last year, for instance, 
