Chapter II: Part 2

In colour the humble bees vary remarkably, the variation occurring chiefly in the females. This variation is not so noticeable in this country, although in many species even here the variability is very great, but when we trace a common species such as _terrestris_, which varies very little here, over a large area such as the Palaearctic region its liveries are so diverse that its females have been treated as belonging to many different species. In the Siberian district its yellow bands become of a pale, almost whitish or straw colour, and the whole appearance of the insect is altered. If, instead of going north, we go to the Mediterranean region we find a large, fine form tolerably common, with bright yellow hairs on the legs. In Corsica {43} again we find a quite different form; entirely black except for the bright red hairs on the apex of the body, and bright red tibiae, clothed with red hairs. In the Canaries another coloration occurs: the whole insect is black with the exception of the apex of the body which is clothed with white hairs; but in all these the male varies comparatively little. In the Siberian and Canary forms it resembles the female, but in the others it varies very little from some varieties we find here. A rather similar series of varieties occurs in _Bombus hortorum_, another species little liable to variation here. In Italy and south-east Europe a form with entirely black body and black wings occurs, and in Corsica a black form with reddish hairs on the apical segments. The male keeps throughout very constant to its normal coloration. The tendency to vary towards an entirely black form seems to exist in nearly all the species, although in Britain black varieties of some are very rare.

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{44}

THE BEES WITH BIFID TONGUES

In this country we have only two genera in which the tongue is bifid at the apex, and on this account they are kept together as close allies in our classification. They are, however, very different in general appearance. One of these groups is called _Colletes_, on account of its habit of lining its cells with a gluey material, the other, _Prosopis_, on account of the markings on the face. The various kinds of _Colletes_ are densely clothed on the head and thorax with brownish hairs, and the segments of the body have whitish bands composed of a dense, tight-fitting, duvet of hairs (pl. B, 10). There is in this country only one exception, a large insect like a hive bee, but rarely met with, its headquarters being the Wallasey Sandhills near Liverpool, and other localities in Lancashire. All the species tend to colonize; some building in huge colonies {45} in sandy cuttings, etc. They are preyed upon by a pretty little cuckoo bee called _Epeolus_ (pl. B, 19), which is black, ornamented with brownish red and whitish spots. One of our best known species, _Colletes fodiens_, can often be found in abundance on the heads of ragwort along the sea-coast in July.

The other genus _Prosopis_ is outwardly entirely unlike _Colletes_: its species are nearly all very small coal-black insects, with scarcely any noticeable hairs, rather unusually narrow and cylindrical in form; they emit a peculiar, agreeably scented fluid when handled; in the males the face is almost always white or yellow, in the females there is generally a yellow spot on each side near the eye. These little creatures are especially fond of burrowing in bramble stems. They like those which have been cut off in trimming the hedges, because in them the pith is exposed and they can burrow their way into it without gnawing through the wood. If any one, going along a hedge which has been trimmed, containing a lot of brambles, in the autumn or winter, would examine the cut-off ends they would soon find some with holes in them. These {46} may be the work of _Prosopis_, but there are other bees and fossors which also burrow in this way. So the stems should be brought home and opened. Then the _Prosopis_ cells may be known by the fine membranous pellicle which surrounds them, but possibly even then a little jewel-bee cuckoo may be found in possession of the cell, instead of the rightful owner. When these little bees emerge they are generally to be found on wild mignonette, bramble flowers or those of the wild parsley tribe. Some are very common, others of great rarity. The males of this genus seem to have a peculiar tendency to develop eccentricities in the shape of the first joint of the antennae, or feelers, some having it expanded and concave, others rounded but thickened towards the apex; in only one British species, _P. cornuta_, does the female show any special peculiarity of form, but in this the face is produced on each side between the eyes into a distinct horn-shaped process. In the females there is scarcely any indication of pollen brush, and for this reason they used to be considered as possessors of cuckoo instincts, but there is now no doubt of their industrious habits; but {47} there is no other genus of industrious bees in this country, with the exception of _Ceratina_, with so little specialization for pollen collecting.

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{48}

THE BEES WITH POINTED TONGUES

All the genera, except the two mentioned in the last chapter, belong to this section, which comprises a variety of very different styles of bees, beginning with the short spear-shape-tongued species and ascending to the long-tongued species, which are considered to culminate in the hive bee. The habits of these genera vary very greatly in some respects; special notice has been or will be given of _Halictus_ (pl. B, 12) and _Sphecodes_ (B, 11), _Andrena_ (B, 15, 16), _Nomada_ (B, 18) and the other cuckoos, _Osmia_ (D, 28) and _Anthophora_ (D, 24, 25) and the leaf-cutting bees, but there are several other genera which deserve a passing notice, although their habits are not so peculiar as those of the specially selected ones. _Cilissa_, which is a very close ally of _Andrena_, is peculiar in having the hairs of the tongue erect and arranged almost in bottle-brush fashion. Its habits are much like those of {49} _Andrena_. _Dasypoda_, so called on account of the enormously long hairs of the pollen brushes of the legs in the female, is one of our most beautiful bees; it is of moderate size, a little more than half an inch long, with a brown haired thorax, and a black body with white apical bands on the segments; the hind legs are rather unusually long and the brush is composed of very long bright fulvous hairs, and when the bee returns home laden with pollen it is, as F. Smith says, "sufficiently singular to attract the attention of the most apathetic observer." It burrows in sandy places much after the fashion of _Andrena_, etc. The male is a different looking insect, entirely covered with yellowish hairs. _Panurgus_ (pl. B, 17) is a curious genus of coal-black bees, whose females have bright yellow pollen brushes on their hind legs; they visit yellow composite flowers and the males often sleep curled up amongst their rays; they are most active bees, and burrow generally in hard pathways. I was watching a large colony of one of the species near Chobham in the end of June--they were burrowing in a gravel path, under which the soil was of a black sandy nature; the path was scattered all over with little black {50} hillocks of sand, and seemed alive with bees. It was showery weather, and occasionally the hillocks were washed nearly flat and a lot of sand must have entered their burrows--however, as soon as the sun came out again they cleaned out their holes and returned to their work. _Panurgus_ is most businesslike in its pollen collecting; it flies in a rapid headlong way into a flower, and seems to do its best to bury itself, with a remarkable amount of action as if it was in a great hurry, and often bustles out of it again almost immediately and goes on to the next. Its methods suggest that it does more work in five minutes than any other bee would do in ten.

Another genus, _Anthidium_ (pl. D, 27), this time one of the long-tongued bees, is peculiar in having the male larger than the female. Both sexes are black, variegated with yellow markings and spots, but the male is more ornate in this respect than the female and also has a peculiarly shaped body, which is unusually flat, curving downwards towards the apex, which is armed with five teeth, two bent ones on the sixth segment and three on the seventh. The female collects pollen on the underside of its body and collects the {51} down off the stems of various plants, especially those of the dead nettle or "labiate" tribe, with which it invests its cells. I cannot do better than quote the following from F. Smith: "This is the social bee which White in his History of Selbourne has so well described in the following words: 'There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the Garden Campion for the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see with what address it strips off the pubes running from the top to the bottom of a branch and shaving it bare with the dexterity of a hoop shaver; when it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between its chin and fore legs.'"

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{52}

LEAF-CUTTING BEES

These are amongst the specially interesting of the bees in their habits. They are dull-brown coloured creatures rather like a stout hive bee in form (pl. C, 20). They all collect pollen on the underside of their body. They burrow either in decayed wood or in the ground, but they make their cells of pieces of leaves which they cut off from rose bushes or other plants; these cells when completed are wonderful works of art. Probably some of my readers may have noticed rose leaves with semicircular pieces cut out of them, and often with almost circular ones; this is the work of the leaf cutter (fig. 7).

20. _Megachile maritima_, _female_. 21. _Coelioxys conoidea_, _male_. 22. _Coelioxys conoidea_, _female_. 23. _Nest of Megachile willughbiella._

[_face p. 52._ ]

{53} She alights on a leaf, holds on to the edge of the piece she wants to cut off with her legs, and then cuts it out by means of her jaws, or mandibles; as soon as it is cut free she uses her wings and so prevents herself from falling, and goes off with the cut off piece safely held under her body by her legs. I have frequently seen bees flying home with their leafy burden, and once or twice I have seen them cutting the pieces out. They cut round the piece they select with great rapidity--the marvel is that they can arrange so exactly as not to fall when the last attachment is removed. The pieces they cut have to be of several shapes in order to build up the cell they require; some are more or less lozenge shaped, some almost circular; the cells they make are somewhat thimble-shaped. The lozenge-shaped pieces are used to build up the sides and lower end of the cell, and the circular pieces to close it in with at the top; it is all cemented together with a gluey substance excreted by the bee. The burrows of the leaf-cutters are made, as stated above, either in the ground or in rotten wood. I have never had a subterranean nest to examine, but have had several nests in rotten wood under my notice, one of which is now before me (pl. C, 23). It is in a piece of very {54} soft willow, almost in a touchwood condition. So that by carefully cutting away the wood I have been able to expose the whole series of cells. Two distinct burrows run almost parallel to each other; both of them are slightly curved and each has contained six cells; these are about half an inch long, and they fit one over another in the tube as closely as possible so as to look like two long thick green worms. Each cell is composed of many pieces of leaf, and the final plug which closes the cell is often made of several rounds of leaf one over the other. The amount of labour taken by the mother bee to make these cells must be enormous. The cells are provisioned like those of any other solitary bee with pollen, etc., and the egg is laid upon it. Most of the leaf-cutters have their attendant cuckoos, which are rather smaller than themselves, of a deep black with white bands on the sides of the body. The female has a very pointed tail, and the male's body ends in a series of spine-like projections (pl. C, 21, 22).

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{55}

OSMIA AND ITS HABITS

I have tried as much as possible to avoid scientific names, but the misfortune is that there are hardly any popular names in use which can be attached for certain to any particular species, and unless this can be done it is of no use using vague names like the "Carpenter Bee", the "Mason Bee", etc. There are many carpenter bees and many mason bees, and though their habits may be alike in this one particular they differ among themselves in the way they use their tools, and it is necessary to know which one we are talking about. It is a common thing to hear people inveighing against Latin names, etc., but they forget that there are no English ones in use, and what is more important, that Greek and Latin names are common property to all nations, so that we can all know what we are talking about, whereas if we call an insect by an English name and the Russians {56} call it by a Russian name, the difficulty of coming to a mutual understanding is very great. This is only an aside to justify the use of classical names. I quite feel that for popular use in this country a good series of English names might be useful, but we have not got one, and it would require a great deal of care and thought to frame a nomenclature which would really be useable by the persons who require it.

I have made these remarks here because _Osmia_ is a genus whose members vary very much in their habits, and some species of which, like sensible beings, adapt their habits to their surroundings, so that no name such as carpenter bee, etc., would apply to all the species, or, as a rule, even to one. _Osmia rufa_ especially adopts several methods of nesting. This little bee is clothed more or less all over with yellowish hairs; it is compact in shape like all the other species of _Osmia_, and like them collects its pollen on the underside of the body. It may sometimes be seen flying up and down the walls of a house looking for a crevice to build in, but it is not the least particular as to where to form its cells. In one memorable case the female selected a flute {57} which had been left in a garden-arbour. The bee constructed fourteen cells in the tube of the instrument, commencing its first cell a quarter of an inch below the mouthhole. The flute is preserved in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. At other times this species burrows in the ground, at others it makes its cells in crevices of old walls; it has been known to build in a lock, and is said sometimes to inhabit snail shells. Other species of _Osmia_ almost always burrow in banks, but in no case does a habit seem to be uniformly adopted by a species. One well known and rare species, _Osmia leucomelana_, is a regular bramble-stick species, tunnelling down the pith in the centre of the stalks, but I once found it to my surprise in fair numbers nesting in a sandy bank. Other species again, as a rule, select snail shells to build in; they find an old disused shell lying about in some sheltered place and adapt it to their purposes, commencing their cells singly in the narrow whorls of the shell and side by side as they approach its mouth, i.e. if the shell be a wide-mouthed one like the common garden snail (_Helix aspersa_). F. Smith, who gives a very interesting account of these {58} creatures in his _Catalogue of British Hymenoptera in the British Museum_, mentions a case where the bee finding the larger whorls of the shell too wide constructed two cells across the whorl. Another very interesting case given by Smith is of a nest of many cells of the rare _Osmia inermis_ (which in his days was known as _Osmia parietina_). A slab of stone, 10 inches by 6, was brought to him with 230 cocoons of this _Osmia_ attached to its under side; when found in the month of November, 1849, about a third of them were empty; in March of the following year a few males made their appearance and shortly afterwards a few females, and they continued to come out at intervals till the end of June, at which time he had 35 cocoons still unopened; in 1851 some more emerged, and he opened one or two of the closed ones and found that they still contained living larvae; he closed them up again, and in April, 1852, examined them and found the larvae still alive; at the end of May they changed to pupae and appeared as perfect insects, the result being that some of the specimens were at least three years before reaching maturity. {59}

There is a nest of yet another style adopted by one of our species (_Osmia xanthomelana_). This is formed of a series of pitcher-shaped cells made of mud, constructed at the roots of grass. The species which makes it is rare and seems to have its headquarters on the coasts of Wales, although it has occurred in the Isle of Wight and elsewhere. This species also is not constant in its habits, as it has been known to make its cells underground. A very curious habit was noticed some years ago by Mr. Vincent R. Perkins in another species of this genus (_Osmia bicolor_; pl. D, 28); the species nests in the ground or in snail shells, but, in the case under his observation, Mr. Perkins found that the little bees covered up all the snail shells in which they had built their cells with short pieces of "bents" so as to make a little hillock over each about two or three inches in height, somewhat resembling a miniature nest of _Formica rufa_, the large horse ant, each mound containing hundreds of pieces. This is the only record I know of this habit, which must entail a large amount of labour for the bee.

These varying habits in the same species {60} show pretty clearly that these little creatures are not driven by any blind instinct in the adoption of their methods of nest building: they appear to have a distinct power of choice and adaptation according to their environment, unless of course it can be shown that the offspring of, say, a snail shell inhabitant follows its parents' habits, and that that of a ground borer does the same--but even that would not explain the case given by F. Smith, and quoted above, where an _Osmia_ had filled up the whorls of a shell and then, finding the final whorl too large, placed two cells horizontally to fill it: that seems to indicate distinct design on the part of the bee and would be hard to explain as due to instinct. Unfortunately, with the exception of a very few, the species of _Osmia_ are rare in this country, so that few opportunities are available for studying their habits, which are certainly amongst the most interesting of any genus.

24. _Anthophora pilipes, male._ 25. _Anthophora pilipes, female._ 26. _Melecta armata, female._ 27. _Anthidium manicatum, female._ 28. _Osmia bicolor, female._ 29. _Bombus terrestris, female._ 30. _Bombus lapidarius. female._ 31. _Psithyrus rupestris, female._

[_face p. 61._ ]

{61}

A COLONY OF ANTHOPHORA

_Anthophora pilipes_ (pl. D, 24, 25), one of our early spring bees, often forms enormous colonies. I have sometimes seen sandpits in which the sides were riddled all over with holes of this species, and where the insects were in such numbers that a distinct hum was audible from the vibration of their wings. In such colonies one is sure to detect some of their cuckoo associates, _Melecta armata_ (pl. D, 26). They are deep black bees, much of the same size as their hosts but with more pointed tails and with a small spot of snow-white hairs on the side of each segment of the body; like other cuckoos they sail about in a more demure way than their hosts, but a more lively scene than a large colony of _Anthophora_ can hardly be found. The _Anthophora_ provisions its cells with honey and pollen, and its egg in consequence floats on the top--the {62} number of cells varies from five or six up to ten or eleven.

_Anthophora pilipes_ has a very close relative in _Anthophora retusa_, which also forms large colonies, but it is as a rule less common. These two species are exceedingly alike, in fact it requires some skill on the part of the observer to differentiate their females. They are both black and clothed with black hairs, and both have yellow pollen-brushes, but in _retusa_ the hairs are shorter and not quite of such a deep black as those of _pilipes_, and the spurs of the tibiae are pale, whereas in _pilipes_ they are black. The males, however, differ widely, although much alike in colour; in _pilipes_ the feet of the middle pair of legs are clothed with enormously long hairs, the basal joint has a dense fringe of black hairs in front and some long black hairs behind (see pl. D, fig. 24); in _retusa_ the basal joint of the middle pair of feet have a fan-shaped fringe of black hairs, and the rest of the joints are clothed with longer hairs, but not long enough to be specially noticeable. _A. retusa_ is visited by the same cuckoo as _A. pilipes_ and also by its rare ally _Melecta luctuosa_, which only differs from _armata_ {63} (pl. D, 26) in the larger and squarer spots of the body and various small structural characters hardly appreciable except by specialists. The Anthophoras have other parasites besides their cuckoos; one is a beetle, which, however, is rare, and which lays its egg in the _Anthophora_ cells; the other is a very minute member of the Hymenopterous family, whose larva when hatched feeds upon the larva of the bee. Notwithstanding these disadvantages both species are abundant, although _retusa_ is more local than _pilipes_. A very interesting fact connected with this genus has just been communicated to me by the Rev. F. D. Morice. John Ray, who lived in the seventeenth century, mentions in his book _Historia Insectorum_ (published posthumously in 1710), p. 243, that a large colony of a bee, which from his description was clearly an _Anthophora_, as he specially calls attention to the great difference between the males and females, inhabited a certain locality at Kilby near "Hill Morton" in Northamptonshire. Mr. Morice, who for many years resided at Rugby, knew Hillmorton, as it is now spelled, well, and tells me that a large colony of _Anthophora_ was in that same locality when he knew it only {64} a few years ago. Of course there is no proof that it has been there throughout the intervening period, but there seems to be no reason to doubt it, and if so it is a most interesting case of a persistent colony.

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{65}

BEES AND POLLEN-COLLECTING

Bees whether solitary or social enter flowers for the sake of the honey in their nectaries and the pollen on their anthers. In some cases the flowers automatically deposit pollen on the bees during the operation, which enables them to fertilize other flowers of the same species, but the pollen which the bee requires for its own use has to be worked for and collected on organs specially adapted for the purpose. These vary very much in the different families and genera; they exist only in the females, and, if the males get covered with pollen, as they often do, it is probably more by chance than purpose, and it is doubtful if it is of any value to the brood, although no doubt useful in fertilizing other flowers. All our bees, as has been pointed out before, are clothed more or less with branched or feather-like hairs, which would appear to be admirably adapted for the collecting of pollen. {66} At the same time some species which have their bodies clothed with branched hairs have simple or spirally grooved hairs on the collecting organ--others collect on very much branched hairs--so that there seems to be no exact relationship between the plumosity of the hairs and their utility in collecting. The collecting brushes are either on the hind legs or, as in some cases, on the ventral surface of the body. In a female _Andrena_, the hind leg has a tuft of curled hairs near the base of the leg, and a more or less heavy brush on the outside of the tibia or shin (fig. 8). When a female returns after a collecting expedition these specially hairy regions are a mass of pollen grains, and the "beautiful yellow legs", so often remarked upon in some bees, are not always due to the colour of the hairs but to that of the grains of pollen adhering to them. The genera which collect on the under surface of the body have to visit flowers where the anthers lie in such a position that they can transfer the pollen on to it; the pea flower tribe are favourites with them, and also the _Compositae_. All this section have long tongues so that they are able to reach the nectaries of {67} plants with long tubular flowers. In visiting these the pollen is often deposited on the back of the bee; this it is able to transfer to its under side by means of the brushes on its feet or tarsi. The arrangements of the humble bees for pollen gathering are altogether different from those mentioned above. They have the hind shin outwardly shining and rather concave, with a series of long curved hairs running down each side of it and partly curving over it, so that they carry their mass of pollen in a sort of basket, scientifically called the "corbicula" (fig. 9); this would be impossible if the pollen were gathered dry, as it is by most of the solitary bees, so the bee moistens it on the flower with the nectar she has been sucking so as to make it sticky, and then transfers it into her basket by means of her foot brushes. The pollen therefore on the hind leg of a humble bee is all in one mass and can be {68} removed as such. When the bee reaches her nest this must of course save her the trouble which the solitary bee must have of cleaning off all the separate grains of pollen which are mixed up among the hairs.

A word or two may be convenient here on the combs and cleaning apparatus of bees. Any one who has watched a bee clean itself will have noticed that the front legs work more or less horizontally--a bee will lower its head and bring its front leg over it with a curved motion--and that it will clean the sides of the face with a sort of shaving-like action, also that the antennae are apparently pulled through the foot-joint in a remarkable way, often many times in succession. Now the foot of a bee consists of five joints, and is clothed with bristly looking hairs. If these hairs be examined through a microscope they will be found to be more or less razor-shaped, having a thick back and a dilated wing or knife-like blade (fig. 10). In some the blade is of some width, and the edge is evidently very sharp: these hairs or spines no doubt do the cleaning work, and admirably adapted they are to the purpose. The antennae-cleaner {69}

(it may possibly be used for other purposes too) is a still more wonderful adaptation; in the basal joint of the foot there is a semicircular incision, which, when examined under the microscope, is seen to be a small toothed comb. The foot itself fits into the tibia or shin, and at the apex of the latter is a modified spine which is dilated on one side into a wing, or knife-like blade; this shuts down on to the semicircular comb, and the insect by passing the antennae between the two can clean off anything which may have stuck to it (fig. 11). When we come to examine the other legs we find that the inner surface of their tibiae and tarsi, i.e. that which is nearest the body, is clothed with hairs which have the points dilated and spade-like (fig. 12), which {70} allowing for the different action of the hind legs makes them just as good cleaners as the razors of the front pair; the spurs at the apex of the tibiae, which are known as the _calcaria_, are also doubtless useful for cleaning purposes, and this is specially suggested by the beautiful saw-like form which they assume in some species; although there is no actual semicircular comb in the first joint of the tarsi, yet there can be little doubt that the spur and this joint in conjunction can act as a cleaning organ very much in the same way as the more elaborate arrangement in the front legs. Any one who has the opportunity of examining the hairs of bees under a microscope will be amply repaid for the trouble in noticing the beautiful shapes and structures which these organs assume. (Figs. 13-18; 17 showing pollen grains adhering.) At one time, when I was specially examining bee hairs, I shaved the various parts of a large number of species and mounted their hairs dry in microscopic slides, merely securing the cover glass with liquid glue; this was twenty years ago, and many are still quite good. It may seem a difficult operation to shave a bee, but {71} the hairs come off very easily, and with a sharp dissecting knife for a razor as many hairs as one wants are almost immediately at one's disposal.

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{72}

ON BEES' TONGUES, AND HOW THEY SUCK HONEY

In order to understand how a bee sucks honey it will be necessary to go into some rather careful details as to the construction of its tongue and mouth organs. These I will make as short and simple as I can, but the apparatus is a very complicated one, and it will be impossible to describe it without a good deal of technical phraseology.

The tongue has always been considered such an important feature in a bee's structure that it has been made the chief basis of their classification. On this subject I will only say that there are three principal types of tongues--a short bifid tongue (fig. 19, 3[1]), resembling those of the fossors; a short pointed one, shaped somewhat like a spear head (fig. 19, 2, 2a); and a long parallel-sided, ribbon-like tongue (fig. 19, 1, 1a). The bees are classified on what is considered to be an {73} ascending scale, beginning with the bifid-tongued species, through those with the short spear shaped tongues to the higher forms, which have this organ elongate and parallel-sided.

The tongue is the central organ of an elaborate combination of mouth parts, which I will now try to explain. If we turn a bee's head over and look at its underside we shall find a deep cavity, filled up with the base of this combination which fits into it. If we extend the tongue (a humble bee is a good subject on account of its large size, fig. 20) so as to draw its base out of the cavity, we shall find that in the edge of each side of the cavity there is articulated a short rod (20, A), more or less dilated at its apex, called {74} the _stipes_; on the flattened ends of these rods there swings a joint shaped something like the "merrythought" bone of a chicken, called the _lora_ or reins (20, B), to the central angle of which are suspended the pieces of the apparatus which terminate in the tongue. This V-shaped joint can swing over on its feet, and can therefore lie either between the _stipites_ or rods with its angle pointing towards the tail of the bee, or in the opposite direction with its angle projecting beyond them and pointing forwards. It will at once be seen that by this turn of the V the tongue can be projected a distance equivalent to twice the length of the V.

This V-shaped joint varies much in the length of its arms, which are much longer in the long-tongued than in the short-tongued bees.

When we examine the parts that are suspended from this joint, we shall find that the actual tongue is separated from it by two distinct pieces; the first (i.e. that next to the _lora_) a short joint (the _submentum_, 20, C), the second (the _mentum_, 20, D) a long semi-cylindrical joint which holds as in a trough the softer parts at the base of the tongue. From the apex of the _mentum_ {75} project three organs; the central one is the actual tongue (or _ligula_, 20, E), and on each side are the organs which are called the _labial palpi_ (20, F); these in the long-tongued bees more or less fold over the base of the tongue and protect it. There are two other large and important mouth parts called the _maxillae_ (20, G); these articulate on to the flattened apices of the _cardines_, outside the articulation of the feet of the _lora_, and extend on each side of the _mentum_; they also have flattened blades sheathing, when closed, the whole of the _mentum_ above, as well as the base of the tongue.

So far we have been looking at the back of the head and mouth parts; if we now look at the front we shall see the _maxillae_; if we open these we shall see the tongue lying between the {76} labial palpi, and at the base of the tongue we shall see two little sheaths called the _paraglossae_; above these the softer parts lying in the trough of the _mentum_; from the base of the _mentum_, connecting with the _maxillae_, there extends a membrane which entirely invests the spaces between the bases of these organs and extends up to the mouth. A membrane also extends between the _stipites_ and _lora_, and closes the cavity at the back of the head. The back of the tongue in the act of sucking can be formed into a tube through which, partly, probably by capillary action, partly by the pumping action caused by the dilating and contracting of certain parts of the mechanism, the liquid food is drawn up into the aesophagus. This, I believe, has been shown to be the principle on which all bees, short- or long-tongued, suck up their honey. The subject could be treated at much greater length, and many other structures connected with the mouth parts discussed, but more minute details are unnecessary in an elementary work such as this, and I have therefore limited myself to a description of the broad principles of the process.

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{77}

A DREADFUL PARASITE

Of all the evils to which bee flesh is heir, there can hardly be any so terrible as the effects of the parasite _Stylops_ on the species of _Andrena_ and _Halictus_ which it attacks. This very extraordinary creature, which is now considered to be a beetle, lives during the early stages of both sexes in the body of the bee, which it enters when the bee is in the larval state. Its head protrudes like a minute flat seed between the body segments (fig. 21), and so is visible externally, but the rest of the creature, which is a grub-like larva, rests amongst the intestines of the bee; the female matures in the bee's body and never leaves it. The male, however, when mature, escapes, leaving the {78} great hole which he inhabited open; he is provided with wings, and I have more than once caught one flying in the open--but to return to our afflicted bee. This may be attacked in either sex, and by one to five of the parasites. I have specimens myself with four parasites in them, and a case of five has been recorded. Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, writing on this subject, says: "On removing the integument dorsally from the bee, the large body of the female parasite will be seen lying above the viscera, often almost entirely concealing them". If this is the condition of a bee nourishing only one parasite, I must leave it to my readers to imagine the state of the poor wretch who is supporting five! The outward appearance of one with several parasites is generally much distorted; the abdomen is very much inflated, and the poor creature is unable to fly any {79} distance, and can only crawl about, or perhaps take short flights of a foot or so. The effects, however, seem to be very different in different cases. I have caught _Andrenas_ with two _Stylops_ in them, flying about as usual and apparently none the worse for their inmates. Probably the position the parasite occupies may make a great difference in its effects on the bee.

The most notable effect produced by _Stylops_ is the alteration in the structure and colour of certain of the bee's characteristic features. In _Andrena_ the males differ very considerably from the females both in form and colouring. They have no pollen-brushes on their legs, and in some few species the face above the mouth is white, whereas in the female it is black. Now the effect of the parasite seems to be to unsex as it were its victims so far as their outward appearance is concerned. This is no doubt due to the internal effects it has on the larva of the bee. Anyhow, if a female is attacked, in most cases the pollen-brush is much reduced, the face tends to become more hairy, and, if it be the female of a white-faced male, spots of white are often produced on the face. On the other hand, {80} if it be a male subject, the hairiness of the face is diminished, the white colour is often reduced or absent, and the hairiness of the legs is increased.

Before the effects of the parasite were recognized, several new species were described simply on specimens of unusual appearance in consequence of its presence.

These effects, however, like the effects produced on the activity of the bee, vary exceedingly in extent. On some the parasite seems to have no effect, in others the alteration in appearance is very great. This, again, is probably due to the position of the parasites and to the pressure they exert on the reproductive organs of the body in the larval state.

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{81}

AMONGST THE BEES AT WORK

Now I feel sure many will be thinking "It is all very well to talk about all these solitary and social bees, but I never see them. I certainly know a humble bee with a white tail and another with a red tail, and a wasp, and perhaps a hornet, but I never notice any others." The reason for this, no doubt, is that people are not as a rule observant, and even if they notice a creature one moment they probably forget all about it the next. If any one goes out on a bright spring morning, late in March or early in April, about 11 o'clock, into a garden well stocked with flowers, it will not, I think, be many minutes before an insect darts on the wing along some border, and, if attention be paid to the flowers, a little black hairy bee with yellow legs, like a small humble bee, will be seen diligently at work sucking honey from one of them. The darting bee, which is of a brownish red colour, gradually {82} fading to grey after a few days' exposure to the sun, is the male, and the black one the female. The male rarely settles, but flies about courting the female. Often two or three males may be seen dodging and crossing each other in their flight. The name of this bee is _Anthophora_. It is quite a harbinger of spring, and I mention it especially as it so forces itself on one's attention, and there are few who will not meet with it without going especially on its quest.

Another opportunity of seeing several kinds of solitary bees flying together may be secured by standing on a sunny day in front of a sallow bush in full blossom, I mean what is commonly called "palm." Its catkins, when the anthers are out and covered with yellow pollen, are most attractive to all kinds of bees, humble bees, hive bees, and solitary bees, and any one who can manage to watch a sallow bush for some time will realize that there are many kinds of bees at work. Of course it is difficult, without special knowledge, to recognize which are bees and which are flies amongst the many which are coming and going, but the yellow-pollened legs of the female bees will generally betray them, as well {83} as their steadier flight. A fly turns about more rapidly than a bee, and sits down much more abruptly. Bees are very captious about the weather; they do not like an east wind and are, apparently, very sensitive to coming wet. I have often gone out on a bright morning and been surprised to find nothing stirring, and then clouds have come up and proved the wisdom of the bees in staying at home. They also fly very little in cloudy weather, especially in the early spring, when the temperature is reduced by cloud below their fancy. One may be watching a sallow bush and see dozens of insects flying about. A cloud shadows it, and almost immediately they disappear, to appear again as suddenly with the return of the sun's rays. It is interesting to watch bees at work collecting pollen, etc., but if any one wishes to study them at home, their nesting haunts must, of course, be visited. These are so various that it is impossible to point them all out, but the best locality to select is a sandy bank facing south. In June or July such a bank is often alive with bees, sand-wasps, etc.; here, again, we want sunshine or the bees will stay in their holes. {84} Even when dull, however, it is a very interesting spot, and we can notice the numbers of holes bored in the bank, and their different sizes and shapes; most of them are round, but some sandwasps make very irregular holes. If we look closely at some of the holes we shall see something closing the aperture, and, if we are too inquisitive, that something will disappear down the hole like lightning; it is the face of the owner of the burrow waiting to come out for the first ray of sunshine, but the owner is very timid and it will be some minutes before she puts her face so near danger again. In most of the sandwasps the face is clothed with bright silvery, or sometimes golden, hairs, and it is a very pretty sight to see these little silvery faces peering out of their burrows. Again, one may sometimes notice a little stream of sand emerging from a hole; this is from some bee who is enlarging her domain or clearing out some of the sand which occasionally falls in. In some cases this ejection of sand is done with a great deal of action: the sand comes streaming out and then the bee follows, quite up to the mouth of the passage, kicking out the sand as hard as it can. {85} The moment, however, that the sun comes out the whole bank is full of life; and just as in the case of the sallow bush, one wonders where it has all been during the shadow. Bees will now be seen flying home laden with pollen; they will pause at the opening of their burrow and then disappear suddenly into its depths. In a very short time they will reappear quite clean and ready for another journey. Their cleaning apparatus must be wonderfully well adapted to its purpose. I have often had to remove the pollen from a bee's leg to see what colour the hairs are, and it takes some time even to brush enough of it off to ascertain this, and yet the natural cleaning process seems to take no time in comparison. But to return to our bank, numbers of bees will be seen coursing up and down and hardly ever settling; these are males paying what attention they can to any females who have time to attend to them, and often falling foul of other males intent on similar pursuits. If one has good luck in the choice of one's bank an elegant wasp-like creature may occasionally be seen amongst the others; this is one of the cuckoos. The flight of all the cuckoo bees is peculiar; it is much {86} quieter and slower than that of the hosts, and a cuckoo may easily be seen solemnly flying up and down the bank, over the various holes, no doubt watching for the proper opportunity to enter one, and deposit its egg in it. This deliberate flight seems a curious habit in a creature which one would think would wish to escape detection. If it seemed to inspire fear in the mind of its host it would be different, but they appear to fly about together unconcerned at each other's presence, and the cuckoo sails along demurely and imposes on its hosts' labours without any apparent resentment on the latter's part; both seem to accept their relationship as a matter of course. Another very interesting frequenter of sandy banks is a pretty little stout sandwasp, about a quarter of an inch long, called _Oxybelus_. It has a very bright silvery face which shines most brilliantly in the sun, and the body has a row of white spots on each side, and it brings flies back to its nest. It is very active and common, and may often be seen with its fly going back to its hole. There is a rare species of the same genus, which is clothed all over with silvery hairs, and this in some places, curiously {87} enough, selects as its victim a fly which is also coated with silver. There are, of course, many other inhabitants in such a bank as this. There are sure to be ants, which are always interesting to watch, and probably now and then a _Pompilus_ will appear on the scene. These exceedingly lively creatures which run at a very rapid pace, vibrating their wings as they go, and taking short flights between the runs, are on the hunt for spiders. They will be seen to forage amongst any grass or herbage there may be on the bank, and if they can only secure a spider it is stung and paralyzed and carried off at once to the nest. Of course every sand bank will not yield a great number of insects, but some, especially in sandy districts like Woking, Oxshott, and other parts of the Surrey commons, and the New Forest, simply teem with life--and would repay any one for hours of watching and observation.

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{88}

ANTS, THEIR GUESTS AND THEIR LODGERS

The number of insects of different kinds which live in ants' nests, either as scavengers, stray visitors who have found a lodging for the moment, as guests carefully taken care of and appreciated by the ants, or as lodgers, either tolerated or hostile to their hosts and persecuted, and parasites, is very great. The most interesting of these from the ordinary observer's point of view are the true guests and the lodgers. The true guests are carefully attended to by the ants; they include such insects as the _Aphides_ or plant lice, and others which the ants use as "cows" to secure the saccharine juices which they can obtain from them, and also certain strange beetles which have tufts of golden hairs on their body, which the ants lick--on account of what E. Wasmann[2] calls the etherealized oil {89} given off by them. These beetles are fairly numerous and belong to several quite distinct families; the one which perhaps is amongst the most interesting is a creature called _Lomechusa strumosa_. This insect has rather an interesting history in connexion with our British fauna. It used to be considered as an indigenous insect, but so many years passed without any one finding it, that the old records were suspected as doubtful, and it was removed from the list of British species. In 1906, however, it was rediscovered near Woking in a nest of _Formica sanguinea_ (pl. A, 1, 2, 3), one of the large red ants, by Mr. H. Donisthorpe. The life-history of _Lomechusa_ is a very curious one: it is taken great care of by the ants, and its larvae are even placed by them with their own, on which it feeds. Its numbers are kept down apparently by the overzeal of the ants to take care of them. The ants bring their own pupae up frequently to obtain light and air and with them it brings up the _Lomechusa_ pupae--this seems not to suit the latter and results in the death of many of them. It is a most interesting case of how a due balance can be maintained, and what might prove an enemy {90} kept in his proper place by kind intentions. There are also in ants' nests what Dr. Wasmann calls "tolerated lodgers"; these are mostly creatures which are supposed to escape the notice of the ants, either by their small size or by their slow, lethargic, or on the other hand very rapid movements--these in many cases act as scavengers, living on the dead bodies of insects, etc., brought in by the ants.

The hostile lodgers are real enemies to the ants and devour their brood, and in consequence they are always at war with each other. These creatures generally resemble the ants considerably in form and colour and especially in their movements.

Besides these lodgers there are numerous parasites of the ants, such as mites, etc., so that an ant colony is a very wonderful mixture of diverse inhabitants. The distinctions given above as to the habits of the various lodgers are not always kept up, as, in some, two or more of these habits are combined. The whole study of ants and their guests is a most fascinating one: many of the latter are great rarities and much sought after by collectors. Unfortunately, the great {91} drawback in collecting them is the havoc caused to the nests of the ants. These structures have been the result of enormous labour on the part of these little creatures, and one cannot regard their destruction without sincere regret. I think any one who, when collecting beetles, disturbs a large nest of the little garden ant (_Lasius niger_) or the little yellow ant (_Lasius flavus_) by turning over a stone, as the writer has often done himself, must have experienced a like regret at having broken up all the beautiful passages and galleries which the ants have constructed so carefully.

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{92}

HOW CAN AN "ACULEATE" BE RECOGNIZED?