760 
SOLITARY BEES 
least danger of burning the fingers. The 
coiled-wire handle remains cool, no matter 
how hot the fire is. , 
SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. — See 
Wax, also Bottling Honey. 
SOLITARY BEES.— The bees, or An- 
thnphila, according to their economy, may 
be divided into two groups, the social bees 
which live in communities, as the honey¬ 
bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees; and 
the solitary bees, among which each female 
builds her own nest and provides alone 
for her brood. The social bees are de¬ 
scribed elsewhere in this work. 
Up to the present time there have been 
recorded in North America over 2,000 spe¬ 
cies of native bees. This is about one-quar¬ 
ter of the described species in the world, 
which are estimated at 8,000. In Europe 
there also occur about 2,000 species; 200 
are known in England, 440 in Germany, 
510 in Hungary, and 413 in Algiers. The 
majority are solitary forms, since the social 
families do not include over 500 species. 
But the indigenous bees of North America 
are as yet only partly known. Immense 
tracts still remain unknown, so far as 
their bee fauna is concerned. Manitoba, 
British Columbia, the whole tier of south¬ 
ern States along the Gulf of Mexico, as 
well as many western States, are as yet 
practically unexplored, and will doubtless 
afford a rich harvest to the diligent collec¬ 
tor. The number of species found in any 
one locality is usually not large, and is 
greatly influenced by the climate and soil. 
In Maine there are about 200 species, in 
Illinois 300, and in New Mexico 500. The 
Anthophila may be classified in fourteen or 
more families according to the conception 
of family adopted by the mellitologist. In 
this division the more important charac¬ 
teristics employed are the structure of the 
mouth-parts, and the pollen-brushes, and 
the veining of the wings. 
SOLITARY BEES AND FLOWER POLLINATION. 
In their relation to flowers bees may be 
divided into two series, the short-tongued 
forms and the long-tongued forms. The 
long-tongued bees are able to reach the nec¬ 
tar in nearly all flowers except those 
adapted to butterflies, moths, and birds, 
but they confine their attention chiefly to 
bee flowers .which have the nectar more or 
less concealed, such as the columbines, lark¬ 
spurs, clovers, vetches, many mints and 
figworts, thistles, and many other Com- 
positae with long corolla tubes. The short- 
tongued bees are compelled to visit open, 
nearly hairless, without pollen-brushes. The pol¬ 
len and nectar are masticated as collected, and 
the regurgitated liquid is stored in the cells as 
food for the larvae. 
rotate flowers with the nectar exposed or 
only slightly concealed, as the plum, straw¬ 
berry, blackberry, raspberry, pear, apple, 
and basswood, or flowers with very short 
corolla tubes like the goldenrods. In North 
America the more common genera of short- 
tongued bees are Prosopis, Colletes, Sphe- 
codes, Halictus, Andrena, and Macropis. 
THE SHORT-TONGUED BEES AS FLOWER 
VISITORS. 
The most primitive bees belong to the 
genus Prosopis , and are closely allied to 
the sand wasps from which probably they 
are derived. Among these small coal-black 
bees there are no adaptations for visiting 
flowers. Their nearly hairless bodies are 
destitute of pollen-brushes, and they have 
short, broad, emarginate tongues like the 
wasps. Were it not that they feed their 
offspring on a paste of pollen and nectar 
and consequently visit flowers more fre¬ 
quently, they would be of no more value 
than the wasps as pollinators. The semi¬ 
liquid paste stored in their cells consists of 
