Ili/menoptera of the Australian Begion. 97 



orilinary blunt form of the other Prosopiilic. It has been 

 customary with some hymeuopterists to speak of the Proso- 

 ])i(he as being the most primitive of bees on account of the 

 lingual characters, the blunt tongue being somewhat similar 

 to that oF wasps; but in many other respects they contain 

 very highly evoluted forms. 



It seems to me now to be very doubtful, owing to the 

 condition of the tongue of the male of these two genera, 

 whether the blunt tongue is a pi'imitive character at all, and 

 not rather a special development, and that the pointed organ 

 of the male may be the more primitive. It has always been 

 perplexing to find somewhat similar blunt tongues in another 

 family (Colletidffi), which otherwise has so little in common 

 with the Prosopidae. It seems hardly possible that the males 

 of Meroylossa and Palceorluza should have specially deve- 

 loped a tongue quite different from the females for any 

 special purpose ; but we do know that both the ProsopidiB 

 and the very different CoUetidne have in common the habit 

 of smearing their cells with a peculiar secretion, which forms 

 a receptacle for the larval food stored therein. This work 

 is of course done entirely by the females, and, so far as is 

 known, is quite peculiar to the two families of bees that have 

 these blunt or bifid tongues. 



It should not be at all surprising to find that some males 

 have not acquired the same structure of the mouth-parts, 

 since they do not perform the same function. Somewhat 

 analogous cases may be seen in other Hymenoptera, e. g. in 

 the DryinidfB, wherein the males in some genera closely 

 resemble their females in important characters, while in others 

 the females, being modi lied for a special purpose, become 

 extremely different, the males remaining in a very un- 

 specialized condition. Tiiis is so much the case that syste- 

 niatists have even placed in different subfanulies females 

 whose males are with difficulty separable generically ! 

 Although the bees may have originated from some blunt- 

 tongued fossorial wasp, I do not think that the blunt- 

 tongued bees can be any longer brought forward as evidence 

 of this. 



Prof. Cockerell has remarked that Palaorhiza is but " at 

 the best a subgenus^' of Meroglussa ; but I think it is a quite 

 distinct genus, and unless one proposes to sink both genera 

 in Prosupis, to which few, if any, hymeuopterists would 

 agree, it must be maintained. There is at present some 

 ditficulty in distinguishing lemales of both these genera from 

 certain species of Prosopis ; but this is no doubt due partly to 

 insufficient study and partly to the fact that Prosopis itself 



Ann. d- Mag. xV. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. ix. 7 



