GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 49 



Melecta resembles Anthophora ; Cmlioxys has the form 

 oiMegachile, both in the hollowed base of the abdomen 

 and the peculiar manner the latter has of raising its 

 extremity, — something like a Staphylinus. Many other 

 peculiarities of resemblancce might be enumerated. 



Having thus completed the description of the external 

 anatomy of the bee desirable to be known for facilita- 

 ting the comprehension of what I may have subse- 

 quently to say. I shall now refer to a few peculiarities 

 of their manners, which could not be conveniently in- 

 troduced elsewhere. 



In their modes of flight bees vary considerably ; some 

 dart along in a direct line, with almost the velocity of 

 lightning, visit a flower for an instant, and then dart off 

 again with the same fleetness and vivacity, like Saropoda 

 and Anthophora ; others leisurely visit every blossom, 

 even upon a crowded plant, with patient assiduity, like 

 Bombus ; and some, either from fatigue, or heat, or in- 

 toxication, repose, like luxurious Sybarites, within the 

 corolla of the flower. The males seem to flutter about 

 in idle vagrancy, and may be often observed enjoying 

 themselves upon some fragrant hedge-row. But the 

 domestic bee and the humble-bee are the most sedulous 

 in their avocation, and both cheering their labour with 

 their seemingly self-satisfied and monotonous hum. 



Bees, too, have a voice ; but this voice does not pro- 

 ceed from their mouth, nor is it the result of air passed 

 from the lungs through the larynx, and modulated by 

 the tongue, teeth, and lips; for bees breathe through 

 spiracles placed laterally along the several segments of 

 the body, and their interior is aerified by trachese, which 

 ramify variously through it ; but their voice is produced 

 by the vibration of the wings beating the air during 



