British Bees: An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British IslesShuckard, William Edward
Science
British Bees: An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British Isles
Shuckard, William Edward
Bees; Hymenoptera -- Great Britain
The MALE differs in having the _head_ less conspicuously globose; the
_cheeks_ less protuberant; the whole body more pilose, the anterior
_spurs_ robust, short, and abruptly obliquely truncated; the _antennæ_
slender, filiform, much longer than in the female, but not much longer
than the head, and from the fourth to the ninth joints serratulate
within, adapting it to a sharp curve; the _abdomen_ being equal,
cylindrical, retuse at its base, convex above, and flat on the venter,
where it has a longitudinal deeply concave mucro in the centre of the
second segment, which concavity runs along all the subsequent segments,
and it is densely pilose on the fourth; the terminal dorsal segment
being deeply emarginate in the centre and produced on each side into a
broad obtuse process; the _claws_ are more robust than in the female and
bidentate; the posterior pair being subclavate, and their single tooth
abruptly reflected.
NATIVE SPECIES.
1. _florisomne_, Linnæus, ♂♀. 3-5 lines. (Plate XIII. fig. 2 ♂♀.)
_maxillosa_, Linnæus.
_maxillosa_, Kirby.
2. _campanularum_, Kirby, ♂♀. 2-2½ lines.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
These insects are named from _χηλὴ_, _a forceps_, and _στόμα_, _a
mouth_,—in allusion to the forcipate form of the mandibles, which are
strong, and cross each other in inaction.
They and the next genus are styled _carpenter bees_, but they are not
more consistently thus called than might be _Anthophora furcata_ and the
genus _Ceratina_; they, in fact, like the latter, just as often avail
themselves of an empty straw to form their cells in, or the cylinder
that has been drilled by some xylophagous beetle of their own size, as
they themselves drill into palings and solid wood for the purpose, but
when they do this, it is facilitated to them by their powerful mandibles
and their square and strong head. They are certainly very compactly
formed, their structure being indicative of great power, of course
relatively to their size. When they drill their cylinders themselves
they are extremely persevering in its execution, and in the process, the
material they extract, which is like fine sawdust, they withdraw from
the depth of the cavity by passing it beneath them, and pushing it out
at the orifice by means of their posterior legs and the apex of the
abdomen, for they are too long to be able to turn within the cavity they
have formed, its capacity not being sufficient to permit this, as it is
very little larger in diameter than themselves. I have repeatedly
watched them in these operations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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