THE HONEY=BEE. 



usually mixed with red and notched behind; remainder 

 of the abdomen without yellow B. affinis. 



Occiput, pleura, and face (largely) yellow; very little, 

 if any, interalar black; first two abdominal segments 



yellow, the remainder usually black B. vagans. 



25. Face, occiput (usually), and pleura black; first 

 (usually) and fourth abdominal segments yellow, the 

 remainder largely black P. ashtoni. 



Face (largely), occiput, and pleura, yellow; first and 

 part of the second abdominal segments yellow, the re- 

 mainder black B. bimaculatus . 



Face (usually), occiput (largely), pleura, and first 

 abdominal segment yellow; remainder of abdomen black. 



B. impatiens. 



APID.E 



Although the American tropics have several genera of 

 vStingless Honey-bees, our only species of this family is the 

 introduced and cultivated Honey-bee or Hive-bee, Apis 

 mellifera (see p. 440). The color of the abdomen is variable. 

 It is probably the most written-about insect. Maeter- 

 linck's Life of the Bee is a classic. Beekeeping by Phillips 

 and How to Keep Bees by Mrs. Comstock are both excel- 

 lent. The individuals usually seen are workers, almost 

 sexless females. As in other bees, and many other insects 

 as well, the legs are not concerned solely with walking. 

 Plate XCIII shows the device (a) on the front legs for 

 cleaning antennae, and a part of the pollen-gathering appara- 

 tus on the hind legs. The basitarsus (6) has pollen combs 

 on the inner side which scrape the pollen from the abdomen 

 and the second pair of legs. This pollen is a sticky mass 

 because of honey added from the bee's mouth. It is 

 removed from these pollen combs by a row of stiff hairs 

 at the end of the tibia and then is pushed upward into the 

 corbicula (c), or pollen basket, by means of the projection, 

 which is just below the tibial combs, shown at the base 

 of the basitarsus. The long hairs on each side of the 

 corbicula prevent the load from slipping sideways. The 

 notch between the tibia and tarsus has been called the 

 wax-shears, but it has nothing to do with the manipulation 

 of wax. 



453 



