ANTHOPHILA. 127 



Of Vespa, the black and white species, macidata, is the most com- 

 mon, building large nests on trees, etc., while germanica and vulgaris, 

 black and yellow species, also abundant, build underground. 



ANTHOPHILA. 



This extensive series, containing the interesting family of Bees, is 

 characterized chiefly by having the basal joint of the posterior tarsi 

 more or less dilated, flattened, generally hirsute and furnished with 

 ai)paratus for collecting and conveying pollen, excejrt in the parasitic 

 species, in which this joint is narrower, simple and destitute of pol- 

 liniferous organs. 



Mr. E. Saunders, in his Synopsis of the British Bees (Trans. Ent. 

 Soc. London, 1883-84 has), found the only satisfactory structural 

 character primarily dividing the Anthophila from the rest of the 

 Aculeata, to be the form of the hairs of the body, which he says are 

 always more or less branched or ^^lumose, at least those of the thorax, 

 while in the other series the hairs are simple or at most twisted, never 

 branched or plumose. This character, which may be a very excel- 

 lent one, has not been adopted in this synopsis because it is in many 

 cases microscopic, and hence diflicult to observe. 



The classification of the Anthophila depends considerably upon 

 the variations in the structure of the mouth-parts, which are highly 

 organized (and are admirably described and figured by Prof. West- 

 wood in his " Modern Classification," vol. ii, pp. 256-57), hence the 

 characters adopted for the separation of the two families, into which 

 the series is divisible, are in the comparative length of the labium 

 and mentuni, as given in the table of families, and for convenience 

 relocated here : 



Lal)iiim llattened, shorter than the nientum ; basal joints of tlie labial palpi not 

 unlike the following joints ANDRENID^. 



Labium slender, not flattened, longer than the mentuni ; basal joints of the labial 

 pali>i elongate APID^. 



In the Andrenidio the species are all solitary, each consisting only 

 of males and females ; while in the Apida% the species belonging to the 

 genera Bombus and Apis are social, and consist of males, females and 



