AVIS MELLIPICA. 213 



APIS MELLIFICA. 



Common Honey or Hive-Bee. 

 Pl. XXVIII. fig. 3. 



Order Hymenoptera. Family Apiari/e. Latr. 



Gen. Char. Posterior tibia-, without spurs or heels ; 

 posterior tarsi with the first joint long and much com- 

 pressed ; upper wi?igs with three submarginal cells 

 complete, the last oblique and linear. 



Spec. Char. Blackish ; abdomen of the same colour, 

 with a transverse greyish band, formed by the down 

 at the base of the third and following segments. 



Apis mellifica ; Lin.Syst. Gmel. p. 2774; Kirby, Mo nog r. Apium Angl. ii. p. 312, 



sp. 73. 

 Abeille a tniel, Fr.; Ape, I'ecchia t lt.; La Abeju cotnun 6 trabajadora y Sp.; 



Abelha, Port. ; Die Honigbiene, Ger. ; Pschela, Russ. 



The Honey-Bee is frequent in the wild state in the forests of 

 Russia, and in different parts of Asia, occupying cavities in trees 

 and rocks, but is very rarely to be found in Britain. Hence the 

 insect may have either been domesticated at a very remote period 

 by the inhabitants, or it may have been introduced from abroad. 

 To America, where it is very common in the woods, it is supposed 

 to have been carried in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. 

 " It is," says Mr. Starke, " of an oblong form and pubescent, with 

 a triangular head nearly the breadth of the thorax, bearing two 

 filiform geniculate and short antennae of from ten to twelve joints. 

 The eyes are large oval and entire, and there are three ocelli dis- 

 posed in a triangular form on the vertex. The mouth is com- 

 posed of a transverse labrum, two strong mandibles, two jaws, a 

 long and slender lip, and four palpi, of which the maxillary ones 

 are very small and the labial ones long. The lip is terminated by 

 a long tongue or probosis, striated transversely, hairy, with the 



