APIS. 321 



and the joints conterminous, the tongue robust ; the 

 thorax is nearly quadrate ; the legs are nearly naked, 

 the four anterior very slender ; the posterior tibiae slightly 

 curved, convex externally; the posterior plants more 

 robust, and more convex externally than their tibiaB, 

 they are regularly oblong, and without the basal auricle, 

 the rest of the joints of the tarsi are very short. The 

 ABDOMEN robust, and obtuse at its extremity, but its 

 seventh segment is concealed beneath; the ventral seg- 

 ments concave longitudinally. 



NATIVE SPECIES. 



1. mellifica, Linnaeus. (Plate XVI. fig. 4 $ ? .) 

 mellifica, Kirby. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The name of this genus, Apis, adopted by Linnaeus 

 as the classical generic name of the bee, although with 

 him it comprised the whole modern family of these in- 

 sects, but which, as now restricted, in accordance with 

 its limitation exclusively to the congeners of his adopted 

 type, is the ancient Latin vernacular name of the honey 

 bee, and to which it has been ever since uniformly 

 attached. This name, as shown by its derivative mean- 

 ing, was originally imposed with direct reference to the 

 insect's constructive habits, as was the case with the 

 names given to it in the more primitive languages be- 

 fore referred to, and which is also the origin of its Teu- 

 tonic and Scandinavian appellations Biene, Bie, and Bi, 

 whence our own common name for it is obtained through 

 the Saxon Beo, and we have beside Bye or bee, signi- 

 fying a divelling. From this circumstance it would 

 seem that a very early and universal discernment existed 



