Bramble-bees and Others 



atlon of the group. After this minute ex- 

 amination made by the experts, if no organic 

 differences stand revealed, the reason is that 

 they do not exist. Any dissimilarity of struc- 

 ture could not escape the accurate eyes of our 

 learned taxonomists. The genus, therefore, 

 is indeed organically homogeneous; but in- 

 dustrially it is thoroughly heterogeneous. 

 The implements are the same and the work is 

 different. 



That eminent Bordeaux entomologist. Pro- 

 fessor Jean Perez, to whom I communicated 

 the misgivings aroused in me by the contra- 

 dictory nature of my discoveries, thinks that 

 he has found the solution of the difficulty in 

 the conformation of the mandibles. I ex- 

 tract the following passage from his volume, 

 Les Abeilles: 



"The cotton-pressing females have the 

 edge of their mandibles cut out into five or 

 six little teeth, which make an instrument ad- 

 mirably suited for scraping and removing the 

 hairs from the epidermis of the plants. It 

 is a sort of comb or teasel. The resin- 

 kneading females have the edge of the mandi- 

 ble not toothed, but simply curved; the tip 



328 



