258 
BRITISH BEES. 
form. What can be the uses of these spines ? They 
can hardly be for defence, although an entomologist 
has said that a male which he held endeavoured to 
pinch by that means. We find similar processes in 
the same situation in Ccelioxys, equally a parasitical 
genus; but the former genus infests the Scopulipecles 
and the latter the Dasygasters, whose economies are 
so very different, and thus it can hardly be supposed 
to have reference to habits. In Epeolus and Stelis the 
same part is mucronated, a tendency to which we see in 
the Nomadce with subclavate antennae. Under Autho- 
pliora I have given an account of the pugnacious spirit 
of these insects in their contests with the sitos, and it is 
necessary to be cautious in handling them, as they sting 
very severely. Our two native species are parasitical 
upon the two species of the first division of Anthophora , 
—those which are gregarious. The circumstance of Me- 
lecta being often caught with many of the extremely 
young larvae of Meloe upon it seems to confirm the fact 
of this coleopterous insect preying upon Anthophora, as 
it may be thus assumed to prey simultaneously upon the 
larva of Melecta. I have never captured these insects 
upon flowers, nor can I trace what flowers they fre¬ 
quent, although Latreille tells us, in the name he has 
imposed, that they are honey collectors; but Curtis re¬ 
ports that he has found the genus upon the common 
furze or whin (Ulex Europceus). 
Genus 16. Epeolus, Latreille. 
(Plate XI. fig. 2 J ? .) 
Apis b, Kirby. 
Gen. Char. : Body glabrous. Head transverse, ver- 
