762 
SOLITARY BEES 
and in general, honeybees are the most 
valuable. The ground bees are also com¬ 
mon on blueberries, cornels, Viburnum, 
roses, sumacs, goldenrods, and hundreds of 
others (Fig. 2). 
All of the genera of short-tongued bees, 
thus far described, carry the pollen dry; 
but Macropis is the first genus to moisten 
it with honey. The brush on the hind tibiae 
is long and dense and is often heavily 
loaded with damp pollen. A common spe¬ 
cies of this genus is M. ciliata, or the loose¬ 
strife bee, so called because it is usually 
found on the flowers of the common loose¬ 
strife ( Lysimacliia vulgaris), a pollen 
flower (Fig. 2). 
hind legs, and the other on the under side 
of the abdomen. 
The leaf-cutting bees (Megaphile) , the 
mason bees ( Osmia ), and the cotton bees 
( Anthidium.) have on the under side of the 
abdomen a stiff brush of unbranched hairs 
inclined backward. When they move over 
level-topped flower-clusters, like the sun¬ 
flower and many other Compositae, this 
abdominal brush sweeps up the pollen 
wdiile the bees are at liberty to suck nectar. 
They are also w 7 ell adapted to pollinate 
leguminous flowers, as the pea, bean, vetch, 
and their allies, where the anthers lie on 
the under side of the irregular flowers and 
come directly in contact with the abdomi- 
Fig. 3.—Long-tongued tees with abdominal pollen-brushes. Mason bees: 1, Osmia mandibulai is, female; 
2, Osmia megacephala, female. 3. Ormia airiventris; a. female; ft, male. Leaf-cutting bees: 4. Megachile 
laHmanvs; a, female; h, male; 5. Megachile vidua; a, female; h, male; 6 , Anthidium cognatum, female. 
THE LONG-TONGUED SOLITARY BEES AS 
FLOWER VISITORS. 
The long-tongued bees include all the 
social bees as well as many genera of soli¬ 
tary bees. The length of the tongue varies 
greatly, the medium length being 6 mm., 
as found in the honeybee, and the extreme 
length 21 to 22 mm. in some female bum¬ 
blebees. They restrict their visits chiefly 
to bee flowers and thus avoid the competi¬ 
tion of many short-tongued insects and are 
likely to find a more ample supply of nec¬ 
tar. The long-tongued solitary bees may 
be divided into two series in accordance 
with the way they collect and carry pollen. 
One series has the pollen-brushes on the 
nal scopa. The tongue in this group is 
usually less than 6 mm. long, and the pol¬ 
len is, of course, always carried in the dry 
state. (Fig. 3.) 
A part of the long-tongued bees with 
polleniferous scopa on the hind legs carry 
the pollen on the femora, or thighs, as 
Panurginus, and the carpenter bees ( Xylo - 
copa) ; while a part carry it on the hind 
tibiae. The Anthophoridae, or cliff bees, 
have a world-wide distribution, and in their 
senses and general appearance resemble 
bumblebees, but are smaller in size, and 
there are no flowers especially adapted to 
them. The collecting hairs in some gen era 
are extremely long, as in Dasypoda, and 
