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

I am prompted to propose this new distribution of the British bees, by the manifest imperfection of the several arrangements of them already extant. The defects of these systems I shall have occasion to exhibit in reference to the course I have been induced to take.

Mr. Kirby’s keenness of observation led him to surmise, from the absence of polliniferous brushes upon the posterior legs, or other parts of the body of some, that there might be a class of bees analogous to the cuckoo, amongst the birds, who did not rear their own young, or undertake any of the cares of maternity; but that led by a peculiar instinct they deposited their eggs in the nests of more laborious kinds, for their young to be nurtured upon the provision laid up in store by the latter for the supply of their own progeny. This being merely a supposition, Mr. Kirby made no use of it in the distribution of his families.

Observation has since confirmed the conjecture, and the fact lends material aid to the combination of the bees into detached groups, and which has been partially applied since by all systematizers.

Conjunctively with the assistance derived from this circumstance, the various modes whereby pollen is collected and conveyed, either on the legs or on the belly, further facilitates the grouping of the family. Other structural or economical peculiarities lend their aid, and although the arrangement primarily emanates from the differences in the formation of the tongue, these are corroborated by differences in other organs, and the general distribution, as well as the special combinations, all result from natural characteristics.

The simplicity of the arrangement thus effected is very striking; and we thus find all the bees having similar habits, and with a similar structure united together by it in distinct groups.

I will here insert my scheme, and exhibit why and in what it differs from those of my predecessors; and, where necessary, I shall append such observations upon the several methods extant, as will sufficiently show the necessity, and vindicate the introduction of a new one.

Family MELLICOLLIGERÆ (Honey collectors).

Subfamily 1. Andrenidæ (Subnormal Bees).

Section 1. With lacerate paraglossæ.

Subsection a. With Emarginate Tongues.