CATALOGUE 



OF THE 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Tribe AiNTHOPHILA, Latr. 



Consisting of two sexes in the solitary species, males and 

 females, to which in the social ones, or dwellers in com- 

 munity, another is added called a neuter, worker, or abortive 

 female. The females and workers (excepting in the case of the 

 parasitic bees, and the queen or fertile female of honey-bees) 

 furnished with apparatus for conveying pollen, and armed 

 with a sting j having antennae, twelve-jointed in the females 

 and workers, and thirteen-jointed in the males ; the females 

 and workers having six segments in the abdomen, that of the 

 males consisting of seven ; all possessing four variously veined 

 wings ; two ovate compound eyes, placed laterally on the 

 head, and three simple eyes, or ocelli, in a curve or triangle 

 on the vertex ; the tongue obtuse, lanceolate, or elongate and 

 filiform ; all, in the larva state, feeding on a mixture of 

 pollen and honey, or on pure honey only, stored up by the 

 parent. The parasitic bees in the larva state consuming 

 the provisions stored up by the industrious bee for its own 

 offspring. 



B 



