S26 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN. INSECTS. 



side were stiff hairs, a few being feebly branched at 

 the apex. 



We could see no trace of the decided "spur" which 

 is used to lever out the pollen from the "basket" of 

 the hive bee, but one stiff hair seemed to stand out 

 more clearly in some cases. 



The front legs are very similar to those of the hive 

 bee. On the first enlarged and elongated tarsal joint 

 is a beautiful ".comb," which is used to clean the 

 antennae. The comb is semi-circular, and a com- 

 plete encircled space is formed by means of a "door" 

 which is attached to the tibia. This door or velum 

 is in the form of a hard curved chitinous bar which 

 ends in two or three short spines at the free end, 

 and which spreads out on the inner side into a 

 broad, thin chitinous area, the whole being more or 

 less curved triangular in shape seen from the side. 

 (See Plate 27, Fig. 7, and a and b). 



The mouth, too is very similar to that of the 

 hive bee — ^the mandibles are toothed but broad. 

 (Plate 2^, Fig. 3.) 



If a few of these bees are soaked in a weak potash 

 solution for a couple of days, and then examined 

 with the microscope these structures can be plainly 

 seen. 



Pollen from flowers was found in masses on the 

 gathering hairs, on the pollen basket, and on the 

 hairs of the enlarged tarsal joint of many of these 

 bees. We examined these grains and found some 

 to belong to the flowers of family My'rtacese 

 {Eucalyptus), bottle brushes {Callistemon), also 

 elliptical grains suggestive of the family Rutacese 



