432 INSECTA. 



Sometimes the social Apiarta liave no spines at the extremity of their 

 posterior tibiae, as in 



APIS, Latreille, 



Or that of the bee, properly so called, where the first joint of the 'posterior 

 tarsi of the labourers forms a long square, and is furnished on the inner side 

 with a silken down divided into transverse or striated bands. 



Apis mellifica, Lin. (The Honey-Bee.) Blackish ; scutellum and abdomen 

 of the same colour ; a transverse greyish band, formed of down, at the base 

 of the third and following abdominal annuli. 



The true bees are much smaller and more oblong than the Bombi. Their 

 body is merely furnished with down in particular places, and its colours vary 

 but little. Their communities consist of labourers or neuters, usually from 

 fifteen to twenty thousand in number, and sometimes extending to thirty 

 thousand ; of from six to eight hundred ma'es, and in some hives of a thousand 

 and more, called Drones, and commonly of a single female, considered by the 

 ancients as the king or head of the community, and styled a queen by us. 



The labourers, smaller than the others, have their antennae composed of 

 twelve joints, and the abdomen of six annuli ; the first joint of the posterior 

 tarsi, or the square piece, is dilated in the form of a pointed palette, at the 

 exterior angle of their base, and densely covered on its inner side with short, 

 fine, silky down ; they are armed with a sting. The female presents the 

 same characters, but the abdomen of the labourers is shorter. Their mandi- 

 bles are spoon-shaped, and not dentated. In the outer side of their posterior 

 tibiae is that smooth depression edged with hairs, called the corbeille or 

 basket. 



The males and females are the largest ; their mandibles are hairy and 

 cmarginated under the point; the proboscis is shorter, particularly in the 

 males. These latter differ from the former and from the ^bourers in their 

 antenna?, which consist of thirteen joints ; in their more rounded head and 

 larger eyes, elongated and united above; in their smaller and more hairy 

 mandibles, in the absence of a sting, in the four short anterior legs, of which 

 the two first are arcuated, and finally in the square piece which has neither 

 palette nor silken brush. 



The interior of the abdominal cavity of the females and labourers presents 

 two stomachs, the intestines, and poison sac. A tolerably large aperture 

 situated at the superior base of the proboscis, under the labrum, and closed by 

 a little triangular piece called tongue by Reaumur, the epipharynx of Savigny, 

 transmits the aliment and leads to a slender oesophagus, which traverses the 

 interior of the thorax, and thence passes to the anterior stomach, or rather 

 crop, which contains the honey. The following stomach, according to 

 Reaumur, contains the pollen or wax-like matter, and has its surface marked 

 by annular and transverse rugae in the manner of hoops. This abdominal 

 cavity of the females contains two large ovaries composed of numerous 

 sacculi, each of which encloses from sixteen to seventeen eggs. According to 

 the observations of Hubcr, jun., the inferior semi-annuli of the abdomen of 



