manicatum, Kirby.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The generic name in this instance seems to be manufactured from the root ἄνθος, a flower. I cannot trace any other derivation as it may not be attributed merely to the habits of the species in frequenting flowers, for is not this the prime function of all the bees, wherein they fulfil a most important office in the economy of nature? How easy might it have been to regulate that flowers should fertilize themselves, as many do without any extraneous intervention, but by this wise and benevolent ordination a tribe of sensitive creatures is introduced to be perpetuated by the perpetuation they supply to that which supports them, and in this circle of reciprocal good offices lend an additional charm to the genial seasons, by the animation which they give to the face of nature, in embellishing the plants they visit with their vivacity and music.
These bees are gay insects, for both sexes are richly spotted with yellow, and they present the single instance which occurs amongst our bees of the male being considerably the largest, and so boisterous is he in his amours that he forcibly conveys his partner to the upper regions of the air, where she is compelled to yield to his solicitations. His whole structure is fully adapted to carry out this violent abduction, as well in the length and power of his limbs as in the prehensile teeth with which the apex of his abdomen is armed.
We have but one species of the genus, although the southern parts of the Continent abound in them. The habits of ours differ very considerably from those of the preceding genus. First, in the peculiarity just described, and then in the formation of their nests. They do not, like the majority of the wild bees, excavate or bore a cavity for themselves, but take one already formed by the xylophagous larva of some considerable insect, such as Cerambyx moschatus, or Cossus ligniperda. This they line, to the depth suitable to them, with cottony down which they scrape from the leaves or stalk of the Woolly Hedge-nettle (Stachys Germanica), the Wild Lychnis (Agrostemma), and other woolly-leaved plants. In collecting this wool the insect is very active, scraping it off rapidly with its broad mandibles, and as this is doing she gradually rolls it up into a little ball, making with the vibration of her wings a considerable hum all the time she is gathering it, and when the ball is sufficiently large she flies off with it to her nidus; this operation she continues until sufficient is accumulated for her purpose, which consists in lining the cavity with the material; she then forms cells within it in succession, gluing the same material together to resist the escape of the mixed store of pollen and honey she intends to fill it with, having in the operation smoothed the sides of the cell which is closed after the deposit of the egg, and another similar cell is then proceeded with, and this is repeated until the selected cavity is filled, or that she has exhausted her store. Having completed her labours, she wanders away. Sometimes the cavity is large and admits of the conjunction of many of these cells together; in that case they are all collectively covered with the same envelope of downy substance. The larva, having consumed its entire store of food, spins a cocoon of brown silk wherein it remains throughout the winter, and with the evolution of spring, feeling its propulsive energy, it changes into the pupa. In June and July, but earlier if the weather be continuously warm, the imago comes forth in its maturity, to live its little life of labour intermingled with pleasure, and in its pleasing hum to give cheerful notification of its perfect satisfaction.
Genus 21. Chelostoma, Latreille.
([Plate XIII.] fig. 2, ♂♀.)
Apis ** c 2 γ partly, Kirby.
Gen. Char.: Body nearly glabrous and coarsely punctured. Head subglobose, rather wider than the thorax; ocelli in a triangle in the centre of the vertex, which is broad and slightly convex; antennæ short, subclavate, geniculated, the scape nearly one-half the length of the flagellum and more robust; the first and second joint of the flagellum subclavate, the basal one the longest and most robust, the remainder short, subequal, and gradually enlarging to the apical one, which is obtuse and as long as the basal joint; face flat, slightly convex between the insertion of the antennæ; cheeks large and protuberant; clypeus concave, projecting, lobated in front, where it is slightly emarginate in the centre; labrum elongate at its articulation, broader than beyond, and from this expansion immediately and abruptly contracting, from the inner angles of the contraction waving to about three-fourths its length, whence it is produced into an equal truncated oblong; mandibles bidentate, external tooth acute, inner one obtuse; cibarial apparatus long; the tongue twice the length of the labium, narrowest at its base and obtuse at the extremity, and clothed with short setæ; paraglossæ very short, coadunate at the base and acuminate; labial palpi two-thirds the length of the tongue, with the three first joints membranous and flat, conterminous and tapering to their extremity, the first joint about one-half the length of the second, the third twice the length of the fourth, which is clavate and articulated within the apex of the third; maxillæ subhastate and acuminate, as long as the tongue; maxillary palpi very short, rather stout, the joints subequal and the terminal one acute. Thorax oval, convex; prothorax inconspicuous wing-scales rather large; scutellum transversely quadrate, convex; post-scutellum transverse, linear; metathorax gradually declining, with a glabrous triangular space at its base; wings with two submarginal cells nearly equal and a third commenced; the second receives both the recurrent nervures, the first beyond its commencement and the second before its termination; legs shortish, subsetose, the anterior spurs short, broad, and emarginate at the apex; the posterior plantæ with a compact dense brush within; claw-joint long; claws simple. Abdomen longer than head and thorax, subclavate, convex above, retuse at the base, and the apical segment obtuse at its extremity, the venter flat, its segments clothed from the second with dense parallel brushes of longish hair for the conveyance of pollen.