BRITISH BEES. 
O70 
<W / <V 
3. argent at a, Fabricius, £ ? . 3-4| lines. (Plate 
Leachella, Kirby. [XII. fig. 3 $ $ .) 
Leachella, Curtis. 
4. odontura, Smith, <$. 4J lines. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Named from the great development of the labrum, 
/meya large, lip, which is characteristic of all the 
Dasygasters, and also of some of the proximate Nudi - 
pedes , those parasitical upon them, Stelis and Ccelioays, 
and which, too, resemble the sitos in the expansion and 
dentated formation of their mandibles, although they do 
not use them for the same purposes; this again exhibits 
an analogy of structure, that appears in the parasite to 
be merely corroborative of identity of existence. 
These are more essentiallvsummer insects than thema- 
%> 
jority of the preceding genera, although some of them pre¬ 
sent themselves with genial spring weather. The genus 
may be separated into two distinct divisions by the pe¬ 
culiar dilatation of the tarsi of the males of some of the 
species, but such division is not indicative of a differ¬ 
ence of habits, as is distinctly the case in the genus An - 
thophora, and in which these combined circumstances Mr. 
Kirby suggested as acceptable for generic division, or, as 
he called it, the institution of another family. But in 
these we find in both divisions both wood-borers and 
earth-tunnelers, and some species are indifferently either 
as suits their accidental convenience. The general ap¬ 
pearance of the insects is more that of ordinary bees, 
and the sexes are more approximate in their habit than 
is usually the case. 
With this genus commences essentially those desig¬ 
nated as artisan bees, although Colletes might very 
