INSECTA. 355 



ARISTOTLE and PLINY, must be used with caution, (AmsT. Hist. Anim. v. 

 21, 22 ; PLINII Hist. Nat. Lib. xi. cap. v xx). 



Amongst the moderns our SWAMMEEDAM made many observations on 

 bees, and bestowed especially much care on their anatomy, Bijbel de 

 Natuur. bl. 369 550. The chief sources for knowledge of the economy of 

 bees are : REAUMUR, Mem. pour serv. a I' Hist. nat. des Ins. V. pp. 207 728 ; 

 M. A. G. SCHIRACH, Hist. nat. de la Reine desAbeilles, la Haye, 1771, 8vo ; 

 HUBER, Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris et Geneve, 

 1814. 



A review of the collected observations of different writers was given 

 first by CH. BONNET, Contempl. d. 1. Nat. onzieme partie, chap. 26, 27, 

 (Euvres, Tom. ix. (e'd. 8vo. Neuchatel, 1781), pp. in 145, and afterwards 

 by KIRBY and SPENCE, Introd. to Entomol. n. pp. 119 214, Letters 19, 20. 

 Several works are quoted and used with deep erudition in the extensive 

 article on the honey-bee, contained in the excellent work of BRANDT und 

 RATZEBURG, Medizin. Zoologie, n. s. 177 205. 



2. Posterior tibiae armed with two spines at the inferior and 

 inner part. (Cubital cells three.) 



Euglossa LATE, Body smooth, shining. Proboscis elongate, 

 bram quadrate. 



Aglae LEPELET. 



Comp. Encycl. method., Hist. Nat. Entomol. Tom. x. 1825, p. 105. 

 (These insects appear to be parasitic, and differ from Euglossa as genus 

 Psithyrus does from Bombus ; see below.) 



Bombus LATI?. Body hirsute. Proboscis moderate. Labium 

 nsverse. 



Humming -bees. These insects construct their nest with mosses under 

 the ground. Sp. Bombus terrestris, Apis terrestris, L., REAUM. Mem. s. I. 

 Ins. T. vi. PI. in. fig. i, PANZER, DeutscU. Ins. Heft i. Tab. 16 ; black, 

 with a yellow ring in front on the thorax and a yellow stripe at the base of 

 the abdomen, of which the extremity is white. Bombus lapidarius, Apis 

 lapidaria L., REAUM. Ins. T. vi. pi. i. fig. i 4, CHRIST, Tab. 7. fig. i, 

 black, the extremity of abdomen orange or reddish. The species of this 

 genus are numerous. They live in small societies and in inartificial dwell- 

 ings, which bear the same relation to the thickly inhabited artistic habita- 

 tions of bees, that hamlets or villages do to large towns. Amongst the 

 females two varieties are found, of which the smaller alone lays eggs that 

 produce males ; so also in Apis mellifica workers are seen, that stand half 

 way between common workers and the queen, and which appear to proceed 

 from larvae of workers, into whose cells some of the queen's food has 

 casually fallen. 



Some species have no neuters, and do not live in society, but parasiti- 

 cally in the nest of other Bombi. They ought, therefore, according to the 

 strict requirements of systematic division, to be arranged with the follow- 

 ing. Here belongs Apis campestris PANZER, Deutschl. Ins. Heft 74, Tab. 1 1 . 

 They form the genus : 



232 



