4-30 INSECTA. 



One of the most common genera of this section, vulgarly called Humble- 

 Bees, is the 



XYLOCOPA, Latreille, Fabricius. 



The Xylocopse resemble large Borabi. Their body is usually black, some- 

 times partially covered with a yellow down ; the wings are frequently violet, 

 cupreous or green, and brilliant. The male, in several species, differs consi- 

 derably from the female. Their eyes are large and approximated superiorly. 

 Their anterior legs are dilated and ciliated. 



X. violacea, Lin. About one inch in length; black, with violet-black 

 wings, a russet ring' round the antennae of the male. The female bores a 

 long vertical hole in the body she has selected, usually old dry wood exposed 

 to the sun, and parallel to its surface. It is divided into several cells by 

 horizontal septa formed with agglutinated raspings of wood. She then, 

 commencing with the lowest, deposits an egg and some paste in each of them. 

 She sometimes bores three canals in the same piece of wood. 



There are several other genera of solitary Apiariae. 



The last of the Apiariae form communities composed of males and females, 

 and a considerable number of neuters or labourers. In the internal face of 

 the posterior tibiae of these latter individuals is a smooth depression, in which 

 they place the pellet of pollen collected with the silken down or brush attached 

 to the inner side of the first joint of the tarsi of the same leg. The maxil- 

 lary palpi are very small and formed of a single joint. The antennae are 

 geniculate. 



Sometimes the posterior tibia- are terminated by two spines, as in 



BOMBUS, Latreille, Fabricius, 



Where the labrum is transversal, the pseudo-proboscis is much shorter than 

 the body, and the second joint of the labial palpi terminates in a point, bearing 

 the two others on its outer side. 



These insects* are well known to children, who frequently put them to 

 death in order to obtain the honey contained within their body. They inhabit 

 subterranean nests in communities of fifty or sixty, and sometimes of two or 

 three hundred individuals. The society is dissolved on the approach of 

 winter. It is composed of males, distinguished by their small size, reduced 

 head, narrow mandibles, bearded, and terminated by two teeth, and frequently 

 by a difference of colours ; of females, which are larger than the others, 

 furnished with mandibles formed like a spoon, as is also the case with those of 

 the neuters or labourers ; the latter, as to size, are intermediate between the 

 males and females. 



Such of the ordinary females as have escaped the severity of the winter 

 take advantage of the first fine weather to construct their nests. One species 

 Apis lapidaria establishes itself on the surface of the earth under stones, but 



They are commonly confounded with the Xylocopre, nnd arc also called Humble- 

 Beet. 



