104 
REVIEWS. 
escape ? when burrowing in a sand-bank the same difficulty presents itself; when 
Chelostoma florisomnis avails itself of the tube of a straw or reed, how is the 
insect to pass the first knot which opposes its escape? Such are the results of 
theoretical conclusions ; let us seek for knowledge in the careful investigation of 
the operations of nature. 
“ A bee is observed to alight on an upright post, or other wood suitable for its 
purposes ; she commences the formation of her tunnel—not by excavating down¬ 
wards, as she would be incommoded by the dust and rubbish which she removes— 
no, she works upwards, and so avoids such an inconvenience. When she has pro¬ 
ceeded to the length required, she proceeds in a horizontal direction to the outside 
of the post, and now her operations are continued downwards ; she constructs a 
cell near the bottom of the tube, a second, and a third, and so on to the required 
number; the larvas, when full fed, have their heads turned upwards; the bees 
which arrive at their perfect condition—or, rather, those which are first anxious 
to escape into day—are two or three in the upper cells; these are males; the 
females are usually ten or twelve days later. This is the history of every wood¬ 
boring bee which I have bred, and I have reared broods of nearly every species 
indigenous to the country. I have observed in the instance of Chelostoma floris¬ 
omnis, that whilst one bee was carrying on her operations as detailed above, ano¬ 
ther was tunneling in a horizontal rail; here no lower opening was required, the 
bee pushed the chips out at the entrance, and as no outlet was necessary at the 
end of the tunnel, the bee in this case made none. 
“There is still another species of this genus whose habits are so different to the 
rest, that our admiration of the ingenuity of these bees is greatly increased when 
we consider its curious details, and reflect upon the degree of care and foresight 
exhibited by the provident parent—this is the Osmia parietina, a bee only found in 
the northern parts of this country. This species selects the underside of a slate or 
stone lying on the ground, and having a hollow space beneath; to the stone the 
bee attaches the little bails of pollen. A stone of this kind was found at Glen 
Almond, Perthshire, on the Grampians, 800 feet above the level of the sea, by Mr. 
J. Robertson, who, on turning it up, observed a mass of cocoons ; although he was 
not much acquainted with entomology, still he knew them to be the production of 
some insect; he presented the stone to the British Museum, and it was placed in 
my hands for observation. The size of the stone was ten inches by six ; the num¬ 
ber of cocoons attached to it two hundred and thirty. When first discovered, 
about one-third of them were empty ; this was in the month of November. In the 
beginning of the following March, a few males made their appearance, and shortly 
afterwards some females ; they continued to come forth occasionally until the end 
of June; at this time there remained thirty-five undeveloped cocoons; on opening 
one or two of them, they proved to contain active larvge; these I carefully closed, 
and left the whole undisturbed until the following April, at which time, on exami¬ 
nation, they proved to be still in the larva state; but at the end of May they 
changed to puprn, and about the end of June began to come forth perfect insects. 
This, then, was the result—a portion of a deposit of eggs made in 1849 had been 
three years in arriving at maturity: when found, one-third were developed; the 
following year a second brood came forth, and whilst in my possession a third. In 
the first instance, the whole deposit was subject to the same influences, and had 
produced larvrn; what was the cause of the retarded development of the rest, it 
were vain to attempt to determine.” 
We cannot but respect the modesty that has left untouched those higher 
problems of system and philosophy, on which the undying fame of the 
11 Monographia Apum Anglise” mainly rests. After the lapse of more than 
half a century, and when the peaceful and honoured age of the Patriarch 
of Entomology in Britain has sunk into the grave (the evening that precedes 
sunrise), the groups, and the disposition of them which he has indicated, 
still form the groundwork for the arrangement of these families ; while the 
