GENERA. 12; 



to separate them, Mditta especlallyj from others. 

 Had I thrown out the two first families of that 

 genus, one of which has a bifid and the other a 

 truncate tongue, all difficulty would have vanished, 

 for the acute tongue of the rest furnishes a peculiar 

 and striking characteristic : but as it was my wish 

 to avoid, as much as possible, all unnecessary 

 multiplication of genera, I was unwilling to do this, 

 especially as these families seem more nearly rela- 

 ted to Melitta in habit than to any other genus. 

 The genera, to which by the form of their tongue 

 they are somewhat approximated, are Crahro and 

 Philanthus of Fabricius; but in Crahro the probos- 

 cis is shorter, triangular rather than cylindrical. 

 The valvulae are more dilated, and rounded at the 

 apex, and the palpi are thickest in the middle, 

 The eyes, likewise, in that genus are very large, 

 subtriangular, and by no means lateral. The an- 

 tennae are anterior, and of a different form. Phi- 

 lanthus may readily be distinguished from those 

 MelittcE which it somewhat resembles in the form 

 of its tongue, by the hairy lateral angles of that 

 organ. Besides, the apex of its valvulae is not pli- 

 cate, its body is without hair, and the sides of its 

 abdomen are crenatef/). 



The only genus, I am at present acquainted 



with, which, like u^pis, has an inflected proboscis, 



is Ammophilai but this is strikingly distinguished 



by its davate tongue, bifid at its apex with acute 



{k) Tab. 14, n. 5 and 7^ corpparc with Tab. 1. -it. a, b. 



lobes. 



