FAMILLE. (Apis. *^. c. 2. 5.) ISl 



" When the larva of this bee is arrived at its 

 full size, it spins itself a cocoon of silk, in which it 

 reposes during its intermediate state. 



" Strongly fortified as these animals appear to 

 be in their little castles, they are exposed to the 

 attacks of a peculiar Ichneumon. JUelalms api- 

 arius likewise contrives to deposit its eggs in their 

 cells, and its larva devours their inhabitants (/)." 



Other bees, that belong to this subdivision,- use 

 only fine earth (which they form into a kind of 

 mortar with gluten) in the construction of theu* 

 nests, which are usually placed in situations shel- 

 tered from wet. jlpis hicornis selects the hollows 

 of large stones for this purpose (/??). Others, again, 

 make their cells of earth in holes in wood. j4pis 

 ccerulesccns, of which Apis cenea is the male, con- 

 structs its nests, as we learn from De Geer(K), of 

 argillaceous earth mixed with chalk, upon stone 

 walls. I have reason to think that it also nidificates 

 in chalk pits. 



The males, in this subdivision, often differ very 

 widely from the other sex, so as to have been de- 

 scribed, in more than one instance, as distinct 

 species, as I shall have occasion to shew more at 

 large hereafter. The female of Reaumur's Aheille 

 mapnne is black, while the male is red(o). 



(/) Reaum. torn. 6. Mem. 3. p. 5" — 5S. [m) Ibid. p. S(5. 

 {n) Tom, 2. p. 2. p. 751—54. Tab. 32. fig. 1-3. (o) Reaum. 

 ttbi supra, P- ^0^ 6l. 



N 3 The 



