196 BRITISH BEES. 



Subsection b. LiNGlTjE LANCEOLATE (with lancet-shaped tongues). 



Genus 3. SPHECODES ; Latreille. 

 (Plate I. fig. 3 c? ? .) 

 MELITTA ** a, Kirby. 



Gen. Char. : HEAD transverse, linear, fully as wide as 

 the thorax, flat, with a slightly convex tendency ; ocelli 

 in a triangle ; antennas short, scarcely geniculated ; face 

 beneath the insertion of the antennse, protuberant ; 

 clypeus transverse, margined, convex ; labrum trans- 

 versely ovate, deeply eruarginate, in the centre in front; 

 mandibles bidentate, obtuse, the external tooth project- 

 ing much further than the second ; tongue short, lan- 

 ceolate, fringed with setee; paraylosste not so long as 

 the tongue, abruptly terminated, and setose at the ex- 

 tremity ; labial palpi not so long as the paraglossse ; 

 the joints comparatively elongate and slender, and 

 decreasing towards the apex in length and substance ; 

 labium rather longer than the tongue, its inosculation 

 straightly transverse ; maxillae about the length of the 

 tongue, broad and lanceolate; maxillary palpi six- 

 jointed, the first joint shorter and less robust than the 

 second, which is also shorter and less robust than the 

 third, which is the longest and most robust of all, the 

 terminal joints more slender, and declining gradually in 

 length. THORAX ovate ; prothorax linear, produced into 

 a sharp tooth on each side ; mesothorax with longitudi- 

 nal lateral impressed lines; bosses acutely protuberant ; 

 scutellum quadrate; postscutellum inconspicuous; meta- 

 thorax slightly gibbous; wings with three submarginal 

 cells, and a fourth slightly commenced, the second 

 narrow, forming a truncated triangle, and receiving the 



