British Bees / An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British Isles

by William Edward Shuckard

In giving a broad sketch of the geography of the genera of bees which are native to our islands, but whose local distribution I shall reserve for notice in the account of the genera themselves, I must regret at the outset the lack of materials for its satisfactory treatment.

There are but very few exceptions to the dearth of assiduity in this direction; a very favourable one is that of the son of the late venerable hymenopterologist, the Count le Pelletier de St. Fargeau, who, at his military post as an officer of the French army in Algeria, stationed at Oran, collected energetically for his father in that district, and where, in one of his collecting excursions, he was severely wounded by a musket-ball. Another equally favourable exception is that of Sydney Smith Saunders, Esq., residing at Prevesa, in Albania, who has strenuously and perseveringly collected in that country. Here and there we can point to something having been done in Upper India, in the vicinity of Poonah, at Pondicherry, in Java, in some limited localities of China, and to some extent in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, but nothing of any magnitude. There is much hope that a great deal has been done in Ceylon by Mr. Thwaites, who, when resident at Bristol, was a most ardent and successful hymenopterologist.

The Egyptian Hymenoptera have been extensively and admirably figured by Savigny, in the Imperial superb work published under the auspices of Napoleon I., but to these, unfortunately, no descriptive text was published, and they are therefore as useless to science as if they had not been figured. But those collected by Ehrenberg, and figured by Klug, in the ‘Symbolæ Physicæ,’ exhibit how rich in variety is that remarkable region. These figures may be called the ne plus ultra of entomological artistic skill.

Unfortunately, this Order has been sadly neglected for the sake of the less troublesome Coleoptera, and the more conspicuous Lepidoptera. This is plainly perceptible from the paucity of species recorded as having been once in the Count Dejean’s collection, where we might have expected to have obtained a rich view of the Hymenoptera of Spain; as also in those of other French collectors, who have had rare but neglected opportunities for the purpose. It is true M. Brullé has done a good deal in Greece. We are, as yet, in comparative ignorance, from the same cause of neglect, of the Hymenoptera of Italy, excepting something that has been done by the Marquis Spinola, in Liguria, and by Rossi, in Tuscany. A little has been contributed towards that of Carniola, but we are almost ignorant of the Hymenoptera of Sicily, which, from various causes, are likely to be very peculiar. Mr. Swainson’s collection of them, although not numerous, were neglected until they became unintelligible. The only European countries that have been tolerably gleaned are Germany, Sweden, a part of Russia, and even Finland. It is impossible for any entomologist to examine every locality for himself, he must, in great measure, depend on the labours of others; and, of course, I can only speak of the collections which are accessible to me, or which are described in monographs, or have been named in lists that have been published. Doubtless the Museum of Berlin, so long under the administration of a lover of the Order, Dr. Klug, would present a large contribution to our knowledge of the distribution of the forms, did a list of its riches exist. Such a list of the menoptera of Portugal, contained in Count Hoffmansegg’s collection, was published many years ago in Illiger’s ‘Magazin der Insectenkunde.’

It has been a fatality incidental to this entomological branch of the study of natural history that some of its most energetic cultivators have been taken early away. There was formerly Illiger, then our own Leach, and then Erichsen. Leach, but for his afflicting malady, would have done much for the science; still, let us hope that the Hymenoptera, and especially the bees, are gaining ground in the estimation of entomologists generally, and that not many years will pass before collectors will possess them in abundance. For the present, I can but give a slight summary of the knowledge we possess on this subject.

Thus science has sustained great loss by reason of the unfortunate neglect which the family of bees, and, indeed, the Order of Hymenoptera generally, has met with from collectors in distant localities whose tastes have led so directly to the collection of other more favoured Orders, and the opportunities for repairing the consequences of such neglect being in some cases extremely rare. The present slight attempt to trace the geography and cosmopolitan range of our native genera of bees will necessarily be affected to some considerable extent by this neglect.

Although the materials in our possession will yield some fruit, yet their collection will be but the gleaner’s handful, instead of a loaded wain from a rich and abundant harvest. As what I have gathered may still have an interest for some of my readers, I will lay it before them, and in doing so I shall take the genera in their methodical series.

The genus Colletes comes first, a position the more remarkable from the peculiarities of its economy and form, which bring it closely to the true bees, as do also its aptitude, by reason of its structure, for collecting pollen, and its energy in gathering it. The divergence in the form of the tongue brings it, however, to the extreme commencement of the series, it being the closest structural link we find for connecting the bees with the preceding family of wasps. This genus, in our own species, ranges through northern Europe to the high latitude of Finland, passing through Sweden; and it occurs also in Russia and in the Polish Ukraine. In other species than ours, and differing among themselves, it occurs at both extremities of Africa, in Egypt, and Algeria, and at the Cape of Good Hope; but whether throughout the wide interval collections do not inform us. It has been sent from Turkey, but whence?—for this is as vague a designation as Russia, both being empires which spread over vast areas,—and, if found in their Asiatic divisions, are the only instances we know of its Asiatic occurrence. It is so easy for collectors to add to their specimens a defined and precise locality, that its omission in any instance is to be regretted, as in many ways, and in all kinds of collections, it might be very serviceable to science. To our present purpose it has but a collateral interest as an object of curiosity, yet curiosity has led to many discoveries which have proved valuable to mankind. All the divisions of natural science have a mutual and convertible bearing, and closely interlink in their relations. Thus, insects denote the botany, which further indicates the climate or elevation and soil; and the superficial soil will point geological conclusions to subsoil and substructure. One natural science well mastered gives a key to the great storehouse of nature’s riches, and yields a harvest of many different crops. This episode may be excused for the hint it is intended to give of the paramount importance of the correct registration of special localities.

The genus Colletes also occurs in the Canary Islands, which shows a trending tendency to its southern habitat at the Cape of Good Hope. It occurs on the western edge of South America, in Chili; it is found on its northern boundary in Columbia, and has been discovered in the southern States of North America, in Florida and Georgia; but there is no record of its further northern occurrence upon that continent. About thirty species are known.

The genus Prosopis, or as it is more familiarly known by the name of Hylæus, is found in some of our native species throughout France and Germany, and, like the preceding, as high up as Finland, through Denmark and Sweden, to the adjacent parts of Russia. It is remarkable that it is caught in Algeria, although not recorded as occurring in several of the southern European States. But the apparent restriction of some of our species to our own islands possibly arises from the fact of special attention having been paid to them in this country only.