HYMENOPTERA. 169 
which he is menaced; he endeavours to prevent it, or to profit 
by the emigration. 
Dreadful combats sometimes take place among Bees. Ata 
particular epoch in which the males become useless, the fe- 
males having been fecundated—from the month of June to that 
of July—the labourers put them to death, extending the earuane 
‘even to the larve and nymphs of that sex. 
Bees have enemies both external and internal, and are ati: 
ject to various diseases. 
The intelligent apiarist bestows particular attention on these 
animals, carefully selects, among the different kinds of hives 
that have been invented, that which is the least expensive in its 
construction, and the best adapted to preserve and rear them; 
he studies their habits, foresees the accidents with which they 
are threatened, and never has occasion to regret his labour and 
trouble. The origin of the attention bestowed upon Bees is lost 
in the remotest antiquity. With the ancient Egyptians the 
Bee was the hieroglyphic emblem of royalty. 
The true Bees are only found in the eastern continent; and 
those of southern and eastern Europe, and of Egypt, differ from 
those that inhabit France, which have been transported to Ame- 
rica and other places where they are now naturalized. 
The species found in the Isle of France and in Madagascar 
—/. unicolor, Lat.—produces honey called vert or green, that 
is held in great estimation(1). - 
The last subgenus of the social Apiariz, or 
Metirona, Illig. Lat.—7vrigona, Jur. 
Is distinguished from the preceding one by the form of the first 
joint of the posterior tarsi, which is narrowed at base, or has the 
figure of a reversed triangle, and is destitute of striz on the silken. 
brush of its inner side. There are but two complete cubital cells in 
the superior wings, while in the Bees there are three, the last linear 
and oblique(2). 
These Hymenoptera are und in South America. They construct 
their nests on the tops of trees, or in their hollows. 
(1) For the other species, see Lat., in the Obs. Zool. et Anal. of Messrs Hum- 
boldt and Bonpland. 
(2) Those species, in which the mandibles are not dentated, are the MELironm 
properly so called. Those, in which they are, form the genus Triegona. See my 
Gener. Crust. et Insect., IV, 182. 
Vout. 1V.—W 
