G74 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



A. jlorea (Fig. G6) is the smallest of the bees ; it is about the size of a 



small house fly and builds its 

 single comb on the branches 

 of trees or in bushes or under 

 the eaves of houses. Its honey 

 is very sweet, but is in too 



Fig. 



66— Apis fovea. The 

 small Indian bee. 

 (India.) 



small a quantity to be worth 

 cultivation. 



Fam. XI. Diploptera (Vespidae)— Wasps. 



The wasps can be easily distinguished by the fact that when at rest 

 the upper wings are longitudinally plicate, that is, they are longitudi- 

 nally folded down the middle. This is 

 well shown in Sharp's drawing of 

 Eumenes flavopicta, a Burman solitary 

 wasp shown in Fig. 67. The trochanter 

 is simple, the antennae elbowed, the 

 eyes reniform and the mandibles long 

 and projecting. 



The wasps are either solitary or social 

 and some have the three forms, males, 

 females and workers. 



The Solitary Wasps (Eumenidce) are 

 more numerous than the social ones fig. 67.— Eumenes flavajricta 9 

 though perhaps less noticeable. They S^lefEVSS 



mav be distinguished by having the claws position of repce, to 



J # & lit . show folding-. (After 



of the foot bifid or toothed, the middle Sharp). 



tibise having only one spur at the end. There are no workers. 



A common Indian Solitary Wasp is Eumenes conica (Fig. G8) which 



constructs clay nests with very 



delicate walls. In these nests about 



a dozen green caterpillars are placed 



in a mass together, there being 



only one cell. It apparently usually 



selects light-green caterpillars for 



provisioning the nest with, although 



occasionally dark coloured ones may 



An esre; is laid in 



Fig. 68 — Eumenes eonira. A common | 1e found. 

 Indian Solitary Wasp. . 

 (India and Burma.) the nest and the larva on hatch 



