3008 



THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



rows in the ground, in holes of trees, or clefts and cracks in walls; the cells being 

 separated by partitions, and made of the ruins of the burrow or cleft. Generally 

 the whole nest has the form of a twisted tube. Like their allies, these bees are 

 solitary, and, like humblebees, are much infested by parasites. Finally, we have 



3 6 



I, 2. HAIRY-LEGGED FLOWER BEE (A nthophora hirsuta), female and male ; 3, 4. TUFTED FLOWER BEE (A. 

 female and male; 5. WALL-NESTING FLOWER BEE (A. parietina), female ; 6,7. LONG-HORNED BEE 

 longicornis), female and male. (All of natural size.) 



retusa), 

 ( Eucera 



the long-horned bees, of which one species {Eucera longicornis} is shown in the 

 illustration. These bees construct smooth tunnels in the earth, divided as usual 

 into sections, each of which contains one egg, together with a supply of pollen and 

 honey for the future larva. 



TRUE BEES Family 



In this group are included not only the various kinds of honeybees, but like- 

 wise their more clumsy cousins the humblebees. Such a well-known insect as the 

 common honeybee {Apis melificd}, of which the habits have been already referred 

 to, requires no special notice; but it is important to observe that the honeybees of 

 the equatorial zone differ somewhat from those inhabiting more temperate regions, 

 in consequence of which they are assigned to distinct genera, such as Melipoma, 

 Trigona, and Tetrasoma. All these are rather small and stingless bees, making up 

 for the absence of a special weapon of offense by a free use of their jaws. Their 

 brood cells and combs resemble those of the common wasp, each forming but a sin- 

 gle layer; and clay and resinous substances being chiefly used for closing the en- 

 trance of the cavities in which the nests are placed. The characteristic transitional 

 features in the shape of the cells, intermediate between the simple cylindrical and 

 the perfect hexagonal forms, have already been noticed in the short introductory 

 remarks. Melipoma and its allies form the connecting link between the solitary and 

 the hive bees. As in the wasps, each family in the humblebees owes its origin to 



