243 



COMMON HUMBLE BEE. 



(BOMBUS TERRESTRIS.) 

 PLATE XIV. 



Apis terrestris, Linn. Kirby's Monog. Apum^ ii. 350. Shaw's 



general Zool. vi. 348, PI. 98 Donov. Brit. Ins. iii. PI. 88, 



fig. 1 A. Audax, Harris* Expos, of Eng. Ins. xxxviii. fig. 1. 



Reaumur, vi. Tab. 3, fig. 1. 



IN its present restricted sense the genus Bombus 

 may be briefly characterised by the following defini- 

 tion ; body oblong, and very hairy ; head narrower 

 than the thorax, usually triangular, the antennae 

 having thirteen joints in the female, fourteen in the 

 male, geniculated at the second joint; exterior palpi 

 exarticulate, interior two-jointed ; ligula three-lobed, 

 the central lobe elongated ; labium transverse sub- 

 linear ; hinder tibiae provided with a hollow expan- 

 sion for collecting pollen ; claws bifid at the apex. 



The species named above is one of the best known, 

 and an account of its habits will convey a pretty 

 accurate notion of the proceedings of the rest, although 

 they vary somewhat in their modes of life. In the 

 female, the head and antennae are black, the mouth 

 with rufescent hairs ; proboscis scarcely longer than 

 the head ; thorax black, with a bright-yellow band 

 anteriorly; basal segment of the abdomen black, 

 second yellow, third black, the three posterior ones 

 white ; wings light-brown, the thick nervures dark 

 coloured, the finer ones ferruginous ; legs black and 

 hairy, the pollen, brush, and spines ferruginous. The 

 male has the thoracic and abdominal bands either 



