236 BRITISH BEES. 



cannot vouch, never having observed the circumstance, 

 nor have I seen reason to abandon the idea that the pa- 

 rasite has no instinct for labour of any kind, — the pre- 

 sence of the clay being, I expect, merely accidental, for 

 it is notorious that these insects have an overruling pre- 

 dilection for keeping themselves extremely clean. 



ft With three submarginal cells to the wings. 



Genus 2. AJSfTHOPHORA, Latreille. 



(Plate VI. fig. 3, and Plate VII. fig. 1.) 



Apis ** d, 2 a, Kirby. 



Gen. Char.: Head transverse, nearly as wide as the 

 thorax ; vertex depressed ; ocelli placed in a curved line 

 upon its posterior margin; antenna short, subclavate, 

 basal joint of flagellum globose, its second joint longer 

 than the scape, very slender, the rest of the joints 

 subequal; face flattish; clypeus protuberant; labrum 

 quadrate, convex; mandibles distinctly bidentate and 

 obtuse ; cibarial apparatus very long ; tongue very long, 

 transversely striated, and with a small knob at the ex- 

 tremity ; paraglosscB about one-third the length of the 

 tongue, acuminate ; labial palpi slender, more than half 

 the length of the tongue, membranous, the basal joint 

 as long again as the remainder, the second joint very 

 slender and very acute; the two terminal joints very 

 short and subclavate, inserted before the extremity of 

 the second joint ; labium short, one-fourth the length of 

 the tongue, its inosculation concave ; maxillm hastate, 

 not so long as the tongue; maxillary palpi one-third 

 the length of the maxillae, six-jointed, the basal joint 

 very robust, the rest filiform, the second the longest, 



