W. H. Patton— Observations on the genus Macropis. 218 
Up to the present time no French* or English author has 
questioned the validity and naturalness of the two groups, 
Abeille and Pro-abeiile, into which Réaumur divided all the 
ees. Kirby adopted this classification, employing the names 
Apis and Melitta; Latreille adopted it under the names Apiarie 
and Andrenete; and all subsequent authors have employed the 
same classification, either under these names or under Leach’s 
family names Apide and Andrenide. Yet the only characters 
given for separating the Apide and Andrenide which are not 
entirely erroneous are: 
Apide ; labium longer than mentum, basal joints of labial palpi 
elongate, labium slender and not flattened. 
Andrenide ; labium shorter than mentum, basal joints of labial 
palpi not unlike the following joints, labium flattened. 
But in the gents Scrapter (placed among the Andrenide) the 
palpi are precisely as in Callropsis (placed among the Apide), 
and, as I have observed, the labium in repose is of precisely 
the same length—in both extending to the tip of the basal 
posterior 
Wings and in general appearance. In the form of the basal a 
of the posterior tarsi of the female it agrees with none but . e 
social bees, which also have the habit of moistening the pollen 
as collected. 
* As Lepeletier failed to recognize the Bees as a natural group, 
said to have presented any classification of them. 
he cannot be 
