NATIVE SPECIES.
1. bimaculata, Panzer. ♂ ♀. 4-5 lines. ([Plate VII.] fig. 2 ♂ ♀.)
bimaculata, Kirby.
rotundata, Kirby.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The name of this genus is as applicable to the subsection as to the genus itself, σάρος, brush, ποûς ποδὸς, a foot, in allusion to their polliniferous posterior legs.
We have but one species, but it is very characteristic; for, although retaining several of the features of the second division of Anthophora (in the colouring of the face it participates with the males of both divisions), yet has it still a marked physiognomy of its own; it retains the normal colouring of bees generally, but its strongest distinction from that division of Anthophora is the shortness of the antennæ in the female, as in the length of the intermediate legs of the male it would seem to form a link between the two divisions, could a distinct genus stand in such a position, and would almost import the necessity of elevating that division to generic rank, as hinted at in the observations under Anthophora. In the large development of its claws it seems to point to an economy somewhat differing from that second division, but nobody appears to have traced it to its nidus. I have often captured it at Battersea upon the Mallow, together with A. quadrimaculata, but the singular velocity of its flight might indicate a very distant domicile,—in a few minutes it could traverse miles. The electrical vivacity and rich opaline tint of its eyes has been often observed, but this, unfortunately, fades with death; yet so marked is it that it has called forth the distinct observation of a Panzer and a Kirby. Besides the Mallow it has been observed to frequent the Heaths, and were its habits better known would be found, I have no doubt, to visit many other flowers, for Curtis took it in the Isle of Wight sleeping in the great Knapweed, Centaurea scabiosa. I have never caught it laden.
I have hazarded the conjecture in a different part of this work that the music of the bees might be attuned to a musical scale by associating the different species in the due gradation of their varying tones. Here we have one of the most musical of the tribe,—not a monotonous dull sleepy hum, but a fine contralto, the very Patti amongst the bees. But it is rapidity of motion which in them intensifies the note they chant, and the velocity of the flight of this insect is something remarkable. They dart about with almost the rapidity of a flash of lightning, and this swiftness of approach and retreat modulates their accents.
Under the head “Macropis” I have pointed to some strong resemblances between this genus and that.