112 ON BEES' WINGS 



folded longitudinally. The shape of the wings 

 varies very little, but the arrangement and 

 number of their cells vary considerably. There 

 are some very interesting genera in which the 

 neuration of some of the cells is so slightly indi- 

 cated that they are hardly visible, and can be 

 seen only when the wing is held in certain lights ; 

 these faintly indicated cells are nearly always 

 those towards the apex of the wing, the 

 neuration of the basal part of the wing being 

 as strong as in the other genera. There are a 

 few moths in this country which very much 

 resemble, both in the colour of their bodies and 

 their clear wings, the wasp tribe, but they may be 

 known by the brown band of scales at the apex 

 of the wings and also by the absence of the narrow 

 waist, which exists in all the stinging tribes. 

 The only wingless forms which we know are to 

 be found amongst the ants and the fossors, and 

 as a rule are females, but in a few cases in the 

 ants, and in some foreign species of the genus 

 Mutilla., the male is apterous also. 



