OR, MANUAL Olf THB APIARY. 39 



heads, elbowed antennas (Fig. 1, d), which are thirteen jointed 

 in the males, and only twelve jointed in the females. The 

 jaws or mandibles (Fig. 65) are strong and usually toothed. 

 The tongue or ligula is very long and slim in the higher 

 genera, but short and flattened in the lower ones. The second 

 jaws or maxillae {Vig. Si, m x) are long and prominent, and 

 ensheath the tongue, with which they are folded back when 

 not in use, once or more under the head. All the insects of 

 this family have, on the four anterior legs, a stiff spine on the 

 end of the tibia (Fig. 69), the fourth joint of the leg from the 

 body — ^calledihe tibial spur, and all except the genus Apis, 

 which includes the honey-bee, in which the posterior legs are 

 without tibial spurs, have two tibial spurs on the posterior 

 legs. Nearly all bees (the parasitic genera are exceptions) 

 have the first joint of the tarsus of the posterior legs much 

 broadened (Fig. 71), and this, together with the broad tibia, is 

 hollowed out (Fig. 70), forming quite a basin or basket — the 

 corbicula — on the outer side, in the species of Apis and Bom- 

 bus, which basket is deepened by long, stiff hairs. These re- 

 ceptacles, or pollen-baskets, are found only in such bees as 

 gather much pollen. A few of the Apidae — thieves by nature — 

 cuckoo-like, steal unbidden into the nests of others, and here 

 lay their eggs. As their young are fed and fostered by 

 another, such bees gather no pollen, and so, like drone-bees, 

 need no organs for collecting it. These parasites illustrate 

 mimicry, already described, as they look so like the foster- 

 mothers of their own young that unscientific eyes would often 

 fail to distinguish them. Probably the bees thus imposed 

 upon are no sharper, or they would refuse ingress to these 

 merciless vagrants. 



The larvse (Fig. 39, y) of all insects of this family are 

 maggot-like, wrinkled, footless, tapering at both ends, and, as 

 already stated, have their food prepared for them. They are 

 helpless, and thus all during their babyhood (the larva state) — 

 the time when all insects are most ravenous, and the only time 

 when many insects take food ; the time when all growth in size, 

 except such enlargement as is required by egg-development, 

 occurs — these infant bees have to be fed by their mothers or 

 elder sisters. They have a mouth with soft lips, and weak 



