376 Mr. F. Smith on the Species and 



species, the number given by Dr. Gerstacker in his elaborate 

 memoir. 



By reference to the plate, it will be at once seen that the form 

 of the posterior leg of the males of the different species is so 

 distinctively different, that this single character alone is sufficient 

 proof of their being distinct species, although the posterior leg in 

 the other sexes only exhibits slight modifications of form in the 

 metatarsal joint ; but these, although less marked, are constant. 



The rows of stiff hairs or bristles on the metatarsal joint are 

 each situated on an elevated ridge; so that when the bristles are 

 removed there is no difficulty in reckoning the number. 



Group I. Vertex distinctly narrowed by the large compound eyes, so that 

 the posterior ocelli are more distant from each other than from the eyes. 

 In the anterior wings the recurrent nervure issues very near the apex of 

 the third submarginal cell. 



Sp. 1. Apis dorsuta, Fabr. Syst. Piez. p. 370, £. (India.) 



lApis nigripennis, Latr. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. v. 1/0, $ . (Bengal.) 



bicolor, Klug, Mag. der Gesell. Nat. Fr. zu Berlin, (1807) p. 264, $. 



(India.) 



zonata, Guer. Voy. Belang. Ind. p. 504, $ . (Coromandel.) 



testacea, Smith, Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. 49, $ . (Borneo.) 



(Additional habitats known are Malacca, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Flores, 

 and Timor.) 



Of this species I possess a good series of varieties of the 

 worker Bees and two males ; the latter sex has not been pre- 

 viously noticed : one specimen from Bombay is reddish yellow, 

 with the thorax above, the scape of the antennse, and the outside 

 of the posterior tibiae and of the metatarsus black; the thorax 

 and two basal segments of the abdomen are clothed with long 

 pale -reddish hair, intermixed with darker hairs on the disk of 

 the thorax ; wings colourless, and much more ample than in the 

 worker Bee. 



The second male is that of the pale variety, Apis testacea, 

 first taken in Borneo, by Mr. A. R. Wallace, and subsequently in 

 the island of Timor ; it is entirely of a pale testaceous yellowish 

 red f the thorax and two basal segments of the abdomen densely 

 clothed with long pale-yellow hair; the wings clear hyaline. 

 Except in coloration, these specimens agree in every parti- 

 cular ; the posterior legs are precisely of the same form and 

 length. Had I not possessed the male of this variety, I should 

 have deemed it advisable to regard A. testacea as a distinct 

 species. The exact correspondence of the two males in their 

 form and proportions I consider conclusive of their being mere 

 climatal varieties. I am informed by Mr. Wallace that he cap- 

 tured this pale variety on the wing in Timor, and that it sus- 



