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

The genus itself, in other and more variegated forms than ours, presents itself in some portions of southern and south-western Europe, where the highly ornamented species would point almost to the certainty of its being a parasitical genus, great decoration being in our native genera of bees the badge of parasitism, and may be indicative of those habits, combined as they are conjunctively with their destitution of polliniferous organs. Some of our native entomologists have, however, assumed, upon what appears to me very inconclusive grounds, that the genus is not parasitical. The observations, however, of the most distinguished French hymenopterologists confirm the notion of their being parasites, which appears strengthened by the argument above suggested with regard to colour.

This genus is apparently fond of hot climates. In eastern Europe, it occurs in Albania and the Morea, its extreme western domicile is Portugal, and its southern European habitat is Sicily. It is found in Algeria and Egypt, and at the Cape of Good Hope. We discover it in India, in the southern tropics at the Brazils, and in the northern tropics at the Sandwich Islands; and it ranges along the southern edge of Australia, from Swan River through Adelaide and Port Phillip to Tasmania. The United States of North America furnish it, and on that continent it seems to contradict its ordinary tropical inclination by being exceptionally found upon the confines of the arctic circle at Hudson’s Bay. Nearly sixty well-distinguished species are recorded.

The genus Sphecodes has also a wide distribution. Our native species are found throughout France and Germany, Greece and Spain, still one or two seem limited to our islands. The genus is recorded as in Albania, Algeria, and Egypt; it is found on the western edge of Africa at the Canaries; it occurs also in northern India, in the United States, on the western side of South America at Chili, and then we have a wide gap, for its next appearance is at Sydney, New South Wales. About twenty species are known.

The genus Andrena, although infinitely more numerous in species than the genus Halictus, which is also abundant, does not appear to have so wide a distribution as the latter. Peculiarities of habits possibly limit its diffusion, although nothing has occurred to naturalists to explain the circumstance, unless it be the adventitious fact of no specimens having fallen into the hands of the collector. Our own species, represented by one or several members, are found (although some seem restricted to England) throughout Europe, north and south, east and west, as also in its islands. In Africa it is seen in Algeria and Egypt, and it occurs in the Canaries; and in Asia it is found in Siberia, and in northern India; but we have no connecting chain to link those Asiatic and African localities,—although we may well suppose that it might be discovered amongst the steppes of Thibet and Tartary, revelling amidst the flowers of their luxuriant pastures, and even amongst the Persian sands. It passes through the United States from Florida up and to our own colony of Nova Scotia, and extends its range to Hudson’s Bay. We do not trace it further. Nearly two hundred species occur.

The genus Cilissa, too, has a limited distribution, and occurs in the same countries, but ranges as high as Lapland; it also crosses the Atlantic, being found in the United States. About six are known.

Our solitary species of the genus Macropis, which is isolated possibly only from having been overlooked, appears to have but a European existence, and is found in France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

The genus Halictus is very cosmopolitan. Some of our own species occur throughout Europe, excepting only Italy and Sicily, although they are to be found in Portugal and Dalmatia, thus traversing its entire breadth; but from the latter country they do not seem to range down to Albania and Greece, yet are they discovered in Malta, and even in southern Africa, but they have not been recorded as extant in northern portions of that continent. Other species have been sent from the western coast of Africa and the adjacent Canaries, with their adjunct, Madeira, and the genus ranges from Barbary through Senegal and Sierra Leone; some species also are found at the Cape of Good Hope.

On the other side of Africa the genus has been discovered at the Isle of Bourbon; it then takes a wide sweep, occurring first in northern India; it then springs up at Foo-chow-foo, and it is found in northern China. In western Asia it occurs in Syria. Across the Pacific it is found in Chili. Its next appearance on the rich and diversified continent of America is across its southern bulk, presenting itself in the Brazils, and on its northern boundary at Cayenne, and in Columbia; and it then appears again in Jamaica. In North America it occurs throughout the United States from Florida upwards, where the genus in its species has a very English aspect, and if they be dissimilar, as may be fairly surmised, they are so very like our own that one is said to be absolutely identical throughout Europe and in Ohio. It passes still forward and occurs in Nova Scotia, Hudson’s Bay, and elsewhere in arctic America, where the botanist might almost herbalize through the agency of our insects, for the pollen they carry and still retain in cabinets would often indicate the plants which they there frequent. Thus those stern regions are not barren in fragrant and attractive beauties. We find it, too, in common with Sphecodes at Sydney, New South Wales, whence, doubtless, it passed to New Zealand, where it has been collected. About one hundred and fifty are registered.

With the next genus, Dasypoda, I terminate the geography of the Andrenidæ. Our own single species of these very elegant bees occurs throughout France and Germany, and abounds in Sweden. Other species, all elegant, occur in the Isles of Greece, in Albania, and the Morea; profusely at Malaga in Spain, and at the further extremity of northern Africa in Tunis, and in Egypt. Twenty are known.

The genus Panurgus is the advanced guard of the true bees, for, although it still retains much of the appearance and structure of the terminal genus of the preceding subfamily of Andrenidæ, it is strictly distinct, and well links the two subfamilies together. This very peculiar form is limited in number of species and in distribution, for five only have been recorded.