GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 



45 



of making the inferior cling to the superior wing by a 

 series of booklets with which its 'anterior edge is fur- 

 nished at about half the length of that wing, which gives 

 to the thus consolidated combination of the two a greater 

 force in beating the air to accelerate its progress. That 

 the insect has a control over the operation of these 

 booklets is very evident, for, upon settling, it usually 

 unlocks them, and the anterior are often seen separated 

 and raised perpendicularly over the insect ; but that this 

 can be mechanically effected also is shown sometimes 

 in pinning a bee for setting, when by a lucky accident 

 the pin catches the muscles which act upon the wings, 

 and they become distended, as in flight, closely linked 

 together. Both the dia- 

 gram and the description 

 of this superior wing I 

 borrow from an elaborate 

 paper of my own in 

 the first volume of the 

 ' Transactions of the En- 

 tomological Society of 

 London,^ wherein I gave a tabulated view, in chronolo- 

 gical order, of the nomenclature introduced by succes- 

 sive entomologists in the use they made of the anterior 

 wing of the Hymenoptera for generic subdivision, and 

 which I subsequently applied to my own work upon the 

 ' Fossorial Hymenoptera of Great Britain.' 



Attached to the mesothorax in the centre, above and 

 behind, are the scutellum and post-scutellum, which in 

 colouring or form often yield subsidiary generic or 

 specific characters. On each side of the mesothorax in 

 front, above the pectus, or breast, and just below and 

 before the articulation of the anterior wings, there is a 



Fig. 12. — Superior wiug. a, marginal 

 cell ; b, first cubital or submarginal cell ; 

 0, second ditto ; i, third ditto ; e and /, 

 first and second recurrent nervures. 



