FAMILIiE. {Melitta. *. b.) 135 



appear to be more nearly connected with that 

 genus than any other, it seemed to me most ad- 

 viseable to consider them as belonging to it, and 

 connecting it with other genera. Two species of 

 the present family have been figured by Panzer as 

 Spheces {y) ; but though their tongue bears some 

 resemblance to that part in some of the Linnean 

 species of /S/)Ae.r, or the Crch^o of Fab ricius, the 

 proboscis, valvulse, and palpi, as well as the eyes, 

 and the antennee with respect to their situation, 

 are different, and are those of genuine Mtlittce. 

 Linneus regarded the several species of this family, 

 as far as he was acquainted with them, as mere 

 varieties oi j4pis annulata \ but the characters of 

 families have so often been mistaken for diagnostics 

 of a single species, as I shall have occasion to prove 

 more at large hereafter, that this need not be won- 

 dered at. The dilated scapus of the antennae, 

 which distinguishes, in so remarkable a manner, 

 the male of one species (z), while the same sex of 

 others hav^e it not, must be the mark of more 

 than a variety. 



The insects of this family appear to be furnished 

 with no apparatus for conveying pollen. They 

 most commonly frequent the flov^'crs of the dif- 

 ferent species of Reseda, and do not usually make 

 their appearance till they are in blossom. When 



iy) Sphex annulate, Panz. Fn. Germ, Init. n. 53. Tab, 1. 

 aad Sphex signata, ibid. Tab, 2. 

 (z) Tab. 1, *, b fig. S. 



K 4 pressed 



