APIDM. 359 



the sixth dorsal segment shining, finely and irregularly 

 punctured, sixth ventral segment armed at the apex with a 

 shining, reflexed triangular spine or tooth which projects 

 amongst the dense pubescence which clothes the apex, 

 lateral callosities feeble and not produced nearly to the apex. 



L. 15-20 mm. 



Generally distributed, associating with B. pratorum and 

 Jonellus. 



BOMBITS, Latr. 



Robust, body densely clothed with long hairs ; tongue 

 very long, labial palpi four-jointed, the first and second 

 joints very wide and sheath-like, the third and fourth 

 divergent, very short and cylindrical ; paraglossia with their 

 dorsal plates narrowly rounded at the apex, lateral sheatha 

 nearly twice as long as the dorsal plates, maxillte pointed, 

 slightly hooked at the apex, their palpi two-jointed, the 

 scales at the base of the maxillte small, bearing several long 

 hairs, labrum transverse ; wings with three submarginal 

 cells ; six ventral segments of the abdomen exposed in 

 the c?, seventh corneous, subtransparent, eighth narrow, 

 somewhat truncate, hairy at the apex; tibije in the cf 

 somewhat shining, with a more or less distinct impression 

 down the centre ; in the ? dilated and concave, the con- 

 cavity very shining and fringed on each side with long 

 hairs ; this arrangement, which is called the " corbicula," 

 is used for the conveyance of the pollen which is more 

 or less moistened and compacted ; posterior metatarsi in the 

 ? and ? produced at the base outwardly into a spine- 

 like process. 



The species of this genus are social, living in more or 

 less extensive communities, the females differ externally 

 from the workers only in size ; some of the species make 

 their nests in the ground, others on the surface, and those 

 of the latter section have been called by some authors 



