162 INSECTA. 
Sometimes the posterior tibie are terminated by two spines, as in 
Evetossa, Lat. Fab. 
Where the labrum is square, and the pseudo-proboscis is as long as 
the body; the labial palpi terminate in a point(1), formed by the two 
last joints. 
Bomeus, Lat. Fab. 
Where the labrum is transversal, the pseudo-proboscis is much 
shorter than the body, and the second joint of the labial palpi termi- 
nates ina point, bearing the two others on its outer side. 
The vulgar name of these Insects, or Bourdons, is applied (in 
France) to the males of the domestic Bee, but the Insects of which 
we are now speaking are much larger, more rounded, and covered 
with hairs frequently arranged in variously coloured bands. They 
are well known to children, who frequently put them to death in 
order to obtain the honey contained within their body. They in- 
habit subterranean nests in communities of fifty or sixty, and some- 
times 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 mandi- 
bles formed like a spoon, as is also the case with those of the newters 
or labourers; the latter, as to size, are intermediate between the 
males and females; Reaumur however says that there are two varie- 
ties; the first, stronger and of a moderate size, and the second, 
smaller, which appeared to him to be the most lively and active. 
Huber, Jun. has verified this fact. According to him, several of the 
labourers which are hatched in the spring copulate with the males 
that have proceeded from their common mother, and lay soon after, 
but producing males only, which are to fecundate the ordinary fe- 
males, or those which appear late in the season, and are destined to 
(1) Even in those species where the body is almost glabrous, such as the den- 
tata, cordata, &c., the posterior face of the first joint of the two last tarsi is still 
furnished with a brush. The habits of these Insects are unknown to us. Some 
individuals differ from others by the anterior convexity or thickening of their 
posterior tibiz, where we also remark, near the outer margin, a cleft or narrow 
and longitudinal fossula. The genus Actas of Lepeletier and Serville—Encyc. 
Méthod., Insect., X, 105—appears to have been established on similar individuals. 
See Lat., Ibid. ‘Vhese Apiarie are peculiar to South America. 
