APIS. (**. c. 2. V.) 255 



teiiiise jutting out on their under side into an ob- 

 tuse angle, the remarkable horn or protuberance 

 which arms the base of the venter, the cavity 

 which answers to it, and into which, when the in- 

 sect reposes in its flowery bed, it is probably in- 

 serted, and the teeth which terminate its anus on 

 the underside, are peculiarities, which I do not re- 

 collect that any preceding author has noticed, but 

 which strikingly distinguish this insect. All of 

 these however I take to be sexual distinctions, for* 

 this insect is always male and the preceding is as 

 invariably of the other sex, a circumstance, which, 

 combined with general traits of resemblance, makes 

 me suspect that they are only the sexes of the 

 same species. The spines at the apex of the tibiae, 

 which Linneus has introduced into his defini- 

 tion, are not more conspicuous in this, than in 

 the other species of the genus; Fabricius has 

 therefore very properly omitted them in his cha- 

 racter. 



SchaefFer has written a monograph in German 

 upon an Apis, which he calls A. Jiorisomnis {g)^ 

 but which is, in fact, a very different species. He 

 describes it as distinguished by a very .particular 

 circumstance, namely, antennae involute or turn- 

 ed in at their tips. His figure represents an insect 

 quite distinct from ours, it may possibly, be the 



(g) Abhandl. von Insecten. 3. Band, p. 125— >30. tab. 1 — 5. 

 }..on, tab. 32. %. 9, 10. 



Bucera 



