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 remarkable form in both sexes of the genus Cælioxys occurs in identity with our own species throughout France and Austria, and spreads north to Finland and Russia, and through all the intervening countries. It is singular that it should not be recorded from southern or south-western Europe, as it is found in Oran. Other species of the genus have been found in northern Africa, Egypt, and Algeria. On the western coast of Africa it has been caught on the Gambia, at Sierra Leone, and on the coast of Guinea. It doubles the Cape of Good Hope, where it is found extending its range to Port Natal. From Asia we have it from Turkey, and again from India. It has been sent from the hither side of South America, from the Brazils, and separately from Pará, and occurs at Cayenne, and in the West India Islands, Cuba, and St. Thomas’s, and extends as high in North America, through the United States, as Canada. It is quite probable that it has as wide a range as the bees upon which it is parasitical (Megachile), although it has not yet come from such extensively-spread localities. More than fifty species are known, but some of our own have not yet been enumerated amongst those found elsewhere.

The genus Megachile, which embraces the most renowned of the mechanical bees, is extremely cosmopolitan, spreading north and south, east and west; and is also very abundant in the numbers of its species, the census extending to not far short of two hundred. Some one, or several of our species, although other species are limited to our own country,—spread through Italy and France, and all the countries of northern Europe to the high latitude of Lapland, which is higher than where even one of ours (viz. the M. centuncularis) is again found, which occurs in Canada and at Hudson’s Bay. The genus also frequents southern Europe, in Spain, Sicily, and Albania, and in the East, in the Caucasus and Dalmatia. It traverses Turkey by Bagdad to India, having been captured in Nepaul, and it descends southward in the Indian peninsula, where it has been found at Bombay. From India it stretches to the Mauritius, thence across the Indian Ocean to Java, and thence to Hongkong and northern China. It then dips to the Philippines, and doubtless through the islands of the Indian Archipelago to Australasia, from which continent none are registered from its northern and eastern settlements, but species abound along its southern edge from Western Australia, through Adelaide to Tasmania. The genus has been brought from the West India islands, St. Thomas’s, St. Croix, and Cuba: it is found upon the main from Mexico, descending to the Brazils. It skirts all the coasts of Africa, being discovered in Egypt and Algeria, along the western coast by the Gambia, Senegal and Sierra Leone to Guinea, and the island of Fernando Po, and then again occurs at the Cape of Good Hope. Ascending the eastern coast by Natal, it stretches to Abyssinia. The species are very abundant in India, Africa, and Australasia.

The genus Anthidium, although very numerous in species, and differing more remarkably in form amongst themselves than most other genera, has a far less extensive range, no species having been found in Australasia or India, although it occurs in Arabia, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Our own solitary species occurs in France, Italy, and the whole of northern Europe, extending to Finland. In southern Europe the genus inhabits Sicily, Spain, the Morea, Albania, and Dalmatia, and is also very abundant in Southern Russia. In Africa it is found in Nubia and Algeria, and on its north-western edge in Barbary, whence it descends by the Gambia and Sierra Leone to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence reaches to Natal. It is then found in Chili, and crossing the South American continent occurs in the Brazils, whence it ascends to Cayenne, and, by way of Mexico, to the United States. The number of species recorded exceed a hundred.

The remarkable genus Chelostoma is very limited in the numbers of its species, of which less than a dozen are known; as also in the extent of their distribution. Our own are found throughout northern Europe, as far as Lapland, and in Russia. In southern Europe they occur in the Morea, and the genus has been discovered in Georgia in North America.

The closely-allied genus Heriades seems limited to a European habitation, and occurs only in our own solitary species, but it ranges, like the preceding, to the high latitudes of Lapland.

Anthocopa seems limited to our own country and France, possibly only from its having been associated from similarity of general habit with the genus Osmia. Only one species appears to be known, but this has a world-wide celebrity, from the interesting account given by Réaumur, of its hanging its abode with symmetrical cuttings from the petals of the poppy.

The genus Osmia, although not including such able artisans as Megachile, still has in its species very constructive propensities. Indeed, all the bees which convey the pollen on the under side of the abdomen, are more or less builders or upholsterers. The genus has a wide range, and is tolerably numerous, numbering more than fifty species. Some of our own occur throughout Europe, and, like the two preceding genera, are found in the highest continental latitudes. Some of ours also occur in Algeria and the Canaries, other species in Albania and Moravia. In Africa they are found in Egypt, Barbary, and Port Natal, and in the New World from Florida, in the United States, through Nova Scotia to Hudson’s Bay.

The genus Apathus, which is parasitical upon Bombus, and to the uninitiated has all the appearance of this genus, seems to be the only instance of a parasitical genus of bees so closely resembling the οἶτος, (as we may, perhaps, for the sake of avoiding a periphrasis, be allowed to call the bee upon which the parasite is found,) as to be so easily liable to be mistaken for it, and which was indeed the case by even such a sagacious entomologist as the distinguished Latreille; but Kirby had already noticed the difference, suggesting its separation from Bombus, until about the time that St. Fargeau was induced to propose a distribution of the Hymenoptera, based generally upon economy and habits, to which he had been led by a refining investigation of structure, that the distinguishing difference was appreciated, and used generically, by Mr. Newman. This difference, like many other simple facts, now that it has been found, is very obvious. It consists in the genus having no neuters, and the female of the species no polliniferous organs, but the determination of the legitimate males, by means other than empirical, is still difficult. In our own species this genus ranges throughout northern Europe, as high as Lapland; a cause for which we shall discover when we trace the geography of the next genus, Bombus. One species different from any of ours occurs in the Brazils, and others are found in the Polish Ukraine, and in the United States of North America. The genus appears extremely limited in numbers, for although nearly a hundred of the genus Bombus are known, Apathus, in collections, seems limited to ten. This may perhaps arise from want of due observation or from the neglect of their careful separation from that genus, but our own species are far from co-extensive with our native species of Bombus.

The genus Bombus, although with some southern irrepressible propensities, it being found within the tropics in a few instances, is essentially a northern form, which is strongly indicated in its downy habiliments, for it is clothed in fur like the Czar in his costly blue-fox mantle. In the Old World its range extends to Lapland, whither it is followed, as previously noticed, by its parasite Apathus, and in the New World to Greenland, where one species seems an autochthon, perhaps originating there when the land was still verdant, and grew grapes, long before the age of Madoc. Other species occur far away to the north of east, booming through the desolate wilds of Kamtchatka, having been found at Sitka; and their cheerful hum is heard within the Arctic circle, as high as Boothia Felix, thus more northerly than the seventieth parallel. They may, perhaps, with their music often convey to the broken-hearted and lonely exile in Siberia, the momentarily cheering reminiscence of joyful youth, and by this bright and brief interruption break the monotonous and painful dullness of his existence, recalling the happier days of yore: but the flowers of humanity, here typified by the natural flowers which attract these stray comforters, will one day spring where the salt of tears now desolates, and thus the merry bees have sweetness for even these poor outcasts, and froth their bitter cup with bubbling hope.

In the south of Europe the genus occurs in Austria, the island of Zante, and the Pyrenees. It is found in Syria, the island of Java, in China at Chusan and Silhet, and also in northern India; and, although crossing the tropics to fix itself at Monte Video, at the mouth of Rio de la Plata, in Africa it appears to be found at Oran only; nor does it occur in Australasia. In South America it is also found at Pará and Cayenne, and on the opposite side at Columbia, Quito, and Chili, and passes up the isthmus to California, and thence to Mexico, whence it extends to the island of Antigua.