FAMILIiE. (Jpis. **. d. 2. ^.) IQl 



that I had extracted from an old specimen o£ Apis 

 violacea, in which it was mutilated, so that I could 

 not discover the shape of the interior laciniae. The 

 valvulas, however, exterior laciniae, and palpi were 

 uninjured. The only species that I have ever seen, 

 belonging to this subdivision, which claims to have 

 been taken in England, is yJpis iricolor of the fol- 

 lowing pages ; but its claim is not established with 

 certainty, for Dr. Latham, from whose collection 

 I received it, is not quite decided in his opinion 

 upon this point ; but as he has always placed it 

 in his cabinet with his English- insects, I have con- 

 sidered it as such ; which I M'as the more inclined 

 to do, in order to lay down the characters of the 

 subdivision to which it belongs, the individuals of 

 which have been universally confounded with the 

 Bomhinatrices ; from \^'hich, however, they are 

 distinguished by the striking characters mentioned 

 in my observations upon the first section of the 

 family {g) . Whether all of them nidificate in the 

 same way with Apis violacea, I am not able to say, 

 it is probable they may. Reaumur has given us a 

 very interesting account of the proceedings of that 

 bee, which I shall now abridge. 



" The mother bee usually makes her appearance 

 early in the year, as soon as the winter is over; 

 she may then be met with in gardens, visiting such 

 walls, as are covered with trees trained upon trellis 

 \\ ork, in a warm sunny aspect ; when once she has 

 {g) Vide supra, p. 133. 



begun 



