l68 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



elongated intermediate legs : these are, however, also, 

 abnormal species, and ought not to be considered typical. 

 This subdivision contains very many more genera, such as 

 Epicharis, Centris, Oxcea, Sec. ; the mere names of which, 

 as they convey neither information nor amusement, we 

 will pass over : we may, however, state tliat it is in this 

 subdivision that bees with the longest and most highly 

 organised tongues are found. 



(153.) The last division of the bees, the social tribe, 

 are doubtlessly the most interesting of all, from their 

 habits, economy, and uses. Our space will not admit 

 of our going particularly into these circumstances ; and 

 it is the less necessary, as there is no treatise on Ento- 

 mology but what abounds with details upon them ; and 

 we shall therefore only speak of those particulars that 

 have been hitherto least noticed. The genera of these 

 insects consist of Bombus Linn., and its parasite Psi- 

 thyrus St. Farg., Euglossa Fab., and the identical Ciie- 

 midiuni Pty., and EuMma St. Farg., with their parasite 

 Chrysantheda Pty.: MelMpona and Trigona of Latreille, 

 and lastly Apis itself. The species of the genus Bombus 

 form or seek cavities in the ground, which some line 

 with a warm coating of moss interwoven together, and 

 within which they build a series of irregularly clustered 

 oval cells constructed of a very coarse kind of wax: 

 others do not form this mossy lining, but instinctively 

 seek a very sheltered situation. Bombus appears to be 

 a northern and chiefly European and American genus: 

 there are very few intertropical species ; and we only 

 know two oriental. The genus Psithyrus so closely 

 resembles the insects upon which they are parasitical, 

 that they readily escape detection, and are not uncom- 

 monly confounded with them by naturalists. It is still 

 uncertain if Euglossa is social, and if their communities 

 consist of three kinds of individuals. This has been 

 assumed, upon the analogous structure of their posterior 

 legs, which much resemble those of MelUpona and Tri. 

 gona : the majority of the species are splendidly me- 

 tallic ; and we think both Cnemidium and Eulaima too 



