APIS. 319 



joints articulated just before its acute apex ; maxilla 

 broad, hastate ; labium half the length of the tongue, its 

 inosculation straightly transverse, not so long as the 

 tongue and acuminate ; the maxillary palpi extremely 

 short, the basal one the shortest. THORAX subglobose ; 

 prothorax inconspicuous; scuteUum lunulate and im- 

 pending over the post-scutellum, which is transverse and 

 linear ; metathorax truncated ; wings with a long mar- 

 ginal cell extending nearly to the end of the wing, and 

 obtuse at its extremity, three submarginal cells which 

 terminate at less than half the length of the marginal, 

 the second the largest and receiving the first recurrent 

 nervure towards its commencement, the third oblique 

 and narrow and receiving the second recurrent nervure 

 just beyond its centre; legs slender, subpilose ; the 

 anterior and intermediate tibia with a spur, their plantce 

 with a dense short close brush all round, the posterior 

 tibm triangular, glabrous within, externally smooth, 

 shining, and irregularly concave, the edges fringed lon- 

 gitudinally with long hair curving inwards, and forming 

 the sides of the corbiculum, or basket, which conveys the 

 materiel of the nest, the apex transverse and pectinated 

 with short rigid setse, but wholly without spurs; the 

 pi ant as oblong, not quite so long as the tibise, the sides 

 nearly parallel, the upper edge fringed with long loose 

 hair, subglabrous externally, but furnished internally 

 with tea transverse, parallel rows of short stiff golden 

 hair, with an auricle at the outer angle, forming collec- 

 tively a dense brush, and its oblique apex pectinated 

 with short stiff setse, the remainder of the tarsal joints 

 short, the fourth the shortest, and the claw joint the 

 longest; the claws short, robust, and bifid. ABDOMEN 

 retuse at the base, subcylindrical, convex above, and ter- 



