200 BRITISH BEES. 



Genus 4. AlsDKENA, Fabricius. 

 (Plates II. and III.) 

 MELITTA ** c, Kirby. 



Gen, Char. : HEAD transverse, as wide as the thorax ; 

 ocelli in a triangle on the vertex ; antenna filiform,, geni- 

 culated, the basal joint of the flagellum the longest ; face 

 flat; clypeus convex, transverse, quadrate, slightly rounded 

 in front ; labrum transverse, oblong ; mandibles bidentate ; 

 tongue moderately long, lanceolate, fringed with fine 

 hair ; paraglossce half the length of the tongue, abruptly 

 terminated and setose at the extremity ; labium about 

 half the length of the entire apparatus, its inosculation 

 acute; labial palpi inserted above it, below the origin of 

 the paraglossse in a sinus upon the sides of the tongue ; 

 maxilla irregularly lanceolate ; maxillary palpi six- 

 jointed, longer than the maxillse, the basal joint about 

 as long as the fourth, but more robust, the second joint 

 the longest, the rest declining in length and substance. 

 THORAX ovate ; prothorax not distinct ; mesothorax 

 quadrate ; bosses protuberant ; scutellum lunate ; post- 

 scutellum lunulate ; metathorax gibbous, and pubescent 

 laterally ; wings with three submarginal cells, and a 

 fourth slightly commenced, the second quadrate, and 

 with the third receiving a recurrent nervure about their 

 middle ; legs densely pubescent, especially externally, 

 and particularly the posterior pair, which have a long 

 curled lock upon the trochanter beneath, the anterior 

 upper surface of the femora clothed with long loose hair, 

 which equally surrounds the whole of the tibiae, but which 

 is less long upon their plantse, the claivs strongly bifid. 

 ABDOMEN ovate, a dense fringe edging the fifth segment, 





