And on a fine May day it is extremely pleasant in a picturesque situation to sit and watch the operations of these very active insects. In their recent state, when just evolved from the nidus, they are very elegant, being covered with a close silky down, which labour and exposure soon abrades. It is said that this bee deserts her nest when she finds the stranger’s egg deposited on the provender laid up in store, or when she meets with the _Nomada_ within, which sometimes lays two eggs in one cell. To this she does not deliver battle, as does the _Anthophora_ to _Melecta_, but patiently vacates the nest, leaving it to the service of the parasite, which is also supposed to close it herself, having been caught with clay encrusted upon her posterior legs. For the accuracy of this supposition I cannot vouch, never having observed the circumstance, nor have I seen reason to abandon the idea that the parasite has no instinct for labour of any kind,—the presence of the clay being, I expect, merely accidental, for it is notorious that these insects have an overruling predilection for keeping themselves extremely clean. ------- †† _With three submarginal cells to the wings._ Genus 11. ANTHOPHORA, _Latreille_. (Plate VI. fig. 3, and Plate VII. fig. 1.) APIS ** _d_, 2 _a_, Kirby. _Gen. Char._: HEAD transverse, nearly as wide as the thorax; _vertex_ depressed; _ocelli_ placed in a curved line upon its posterior margin; _antennæ_ short, subclavate, basal joint of flagellum globose, its second joint longer than the scape, very slender, the rest of the joints subequal; _face_ flattish; _clypeus_ protuberant; _labrum_ quadrate, convex; _mandibles_ distinctly bidentate and obtuse; _cibarial apparatus_ very long; _tongue_ very long, transversely striated, and with a small knob at the extremity; _paraglossæ_ about one-third the length of the tongue, acuminate; _labial palpi_ slender, more than half the length of the tongue, membranous, the basal joint as long again as the remainder, the second joint very slender and very acute; the two terminal joints very short and subclavate, inserted before the extremity of the second joint; _labium_ short, one-fourth the length of the tongue, its inosculation concave; _maxillæ_ hastate, not so long as the tongue; _maxillary palpi_ one-third the length of the maxillæ, six-jointed, the basal joint very robust, the rest filiform, the second the longest, and all the rest decreasing in length and substance. THORAX oval, densely pubescent, which conceals its divisions; _metathorax_ truncated; _wings_ with three submarginal cells, closed, the second receives the first recurrent nervure in its centre, and the third, which bulges externally, receives the second at its extremity; _legs_ setose, the exterior of the posterior _tibiæ_ and _plantæ_ moderately so, and the interior of the latter also densely setose; the second joint of the