Bees and their Counterfeits. 173 



posed, even to the white face and brown eyes; while the 

 opaque, iridescent wings are precisely similar in tone and 

 colour. The somewhat longer legs, the single pair of wings, 

 and the different structure of the antennae, at once prove to 

 the entomologist that these two insects are not only not the 

 same, but that they belong even to different "orders." They are, 

 however, in all probability, found together, like the other bees 

 and diptera which so strongly resemble each other — the larva 

 of the diptera, no doubt, preying upon the larva of the bee. In 

 proof of this hypothesis, it may be stated that both specimens 

 were brought to England from the west coast of Africa, the bee, 

 from Sierra Leone, the bee-fly from Port Natal, and probably 

 both will eventually be found in the same district. The last, 

 the bee-fly, is at present an entomological novelty, and has 

 not yet been named. The bee exhibits, in an unusual degree, 

 a peculiarity common to many of the family, namely, a marked 

 difference in the general aspect of the two sexes. The indi- 

 vidual engraved above is the female bee, the male being of a 

 light tawny brown colour, and having a much longer body, a 

 characteristic which generally distinguishes the female rather 

 than the male. The two sexes of this remarkable insect are 

 both figured in the coloured plate, No. 1 being the male, and 

 No. 2 the female. It would be interesting to know, whether 

 in the bee-fly, which bears so extraordinary a resemblance to 

 this fine bee, an equal disparity of appearance exists between 

 the two sexes ; but, as we have at present only a solitary speci- 

 men of this insect, that is a point which cannot be decided ; 

 but other specimens will, doubtless, be captured, which may 

 may enable us to solve this interesting entomological problem. 



The other exotic bees figured in the coloured plate are, the 

 pretty little Euglossa cordata (No. 5), a native of the Brazils ; 

 Anthopliora elegans (No. 6); and Crocisa picta (No. 7), are also 

 from South America. 



In concluding my remarks on curious resemblances between 

 " bees" and various kinds of two-winged " flies," I may mention 

 a curious instance of a resemblance between a dipterous insect 

 and one of the wasp tribe (Vespidoe). Eumenes esuriens, a small 

 Indian wasp, found in Bengal, has its counterpart (the resem- 

 blance being truly extraordinary) in Gesia eumenoides, the speci- 

 fic name of which has been conferred upon it in consequence of 

 this singular resemblance. I ought also to mention, as a case 

 in point not the least singular, that a British dipterous insect 

 of the Syrphus tribe, belonging to the genus Eristalis, is so like 

 the common hive-bee, that it would, at a glance, deceive any 

 observer untrained as an entomologist. 



