. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. BEES ANDRENIDES 23. occasions on which this bee has been found in Britain it was in circumstances that left little doubt as to its being a parasite of Andrena nigroaenea. IMarchal ^ has seen S. subquadratus fight with Halictus malachurus, and kill it previous to taking possession of its burrows; and similar observations have been made by Ferton. As the older observations of Smith, Sichel, and Friese leave little doubt that ^plie- codes are sometimes indus- trial bees, it is highly prob- able that we have in this fiG. 11.—Sphecodes globus ?. Britain. ge
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. BEES ANDRENIDES 23. occasions on which this bee has been found in Britain it was in circumstances that left little doubt as to its being a parasite of Andrena nigroaenea. IMarchal ^ has seen S. subquadratus fight with Halictus malachurus, and kill it previous to taking possession of its burrows; and similar observations have been made by Ferton. As the older observations of Smith, Sichel, and Friese leave little doubt that ^plie- codes are sometimes indus- trial bees, it is highly prob- able that we have in this fiG. 11.—Sphecodes globus ?. Britain. genus the interesting con- dition of bees that are sometimes parasitic, at other times not; but so much obscurity still prevails as to the habits of SpJiecodes that we should do well to delay accepting the theories that have been already based on this strange state of matters.^ Friese states that in Sphecodes the first traces of collecting apparatus exist; and, accepting the condition of affairs as being that mentioned above, it is by no means clear whether we have in Sphecodes bees that are abandoning the parasitic habit or com- mencing it; or, indeed, whether the condition of uncertainty may not be a permanent one. It is difficult to decide as to what forms are species in Sphecodes owing to the great variation. The Hymenopterist Forster considered that 600 specimens sub- mitted to him by Sichel represented no less than 140 species, though Sichel was convinced that nearly the "whole of them were one species, ^S*. gibbvs. It has recently been found that the male sexual organs afford a satisfactory criterion. The position of Sphecodes in classification is doubtful. The great majority of the species of short-tongued bees found in Britain belong to the genera Andrena and Halictus, and with some others constitute the Andkenides of many writers. Halictus includes our smallest British bees. Their economy escaped the earlier observers, but has recently been to some extent unravel
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