74 
BRITISH BEES. 
the Brazils, but the whole number yet described is under 
ten. 
The remarkable form in both sexes of the genus CiE- 
lioxys occurs in identity with our own species through¬ 
out Trance and Austria, and spreads north to Finland 
and Russia, and through all the intervening countries. 
It is singular that it should not be recorded from southern 
or south-western Europe, as it is found in Oran. Other 
species of the genus have been found in northern Africa, 
Egypt, and Algeria. On the western coast of Africa it 
has been caught on the Gambia, at Sierra Leone, and 
on the coast of Guinea. It doubles the Cape of Good 
Hope, where it is found extending its range to Port 
Natal. From Asia we have it from Turkey, and again 
from India. It has been sent from the hither side of 
South America, from the Brazils, and separately from 
Para, and occurs at Cayenne, and in the West India 
Islands, Cuba, and St. Thomas’s, and extends as high in 
North America, through the United States, as Canada. 
It is quite probable that it has as wide a range as the 
bees upon which it is parasitical [Megachile ), although it 
has not yet come from such extensively-spread loca¬ 
lities. More than fifty species are known, but some of 
our own have not yet been enumerated amongst those 
found elsewhere. 
The genus Megachile, which embraces the most re¬ 
nowned of the mechanical bees,is extremely cosmopolitan, 
spreading north and south, east and west; and is also 
very abundant in the numbers of its species, the census 
extending to not far short of two hundred. Some one, 
or several of our species, although other species are 
limited to our own country,—spread through Italy and 
France, and all the countries of northern Europe to the 
