HYMENOPTE RA- ACULEATA. 389 



Passing from the first great division of the Aculeata, 

 the Prcedones, we come to the second, the 



ANTHOPHILA. 



The Anthophila, or flower lovers, are the Bees, insects 

 which are purely vegetable feeders in the larval state, and 

 store up in the cells which they construct for their }^oung, 

 honey and pollen, delicate sustenance collected from 

 flowers, instead of animal food, like the Fossores and 

 Diploptera. 



These Bees are for the most part solitary in habit, con- 

 sisting of male and female only ; but many of the solitary 

 species, with their separate burrows, are, like some of the 

 Prcedones, of gregarious disposition, and form large 

 colonies of nests in close proximity. Two genera, how- 

 ever, Bombus and Apis, form an exception to the majority 

 of the Anthophila, and are social insects, with male, 

 female and worker (or imperfect female) ; they live as 

 large communities dwelling together in one nest. 



Further, certain genera of the Anthophila form an 

 exception to the rule of the parent providing food for her 

 future offspring ; for the inquiline or " cuckoo bees " of 

 the genus Nomoda, Sphecodes ? Epeolus, Melecta, 

 Coelioxys and Stelis, instead of themselves excavating 

 burrows and storing up food therein for their future 

 young, lay their eggs in the already provisioned nests of 

 other species, or even, in the case of Psithyrus, make the 

 workers in the nests of their social hosts feed their off- 

 spring for them. 



(Jbtusiling ues. 



Bees with short flat double lobed tongues like the 

 Wasps; these they use for lining the inside of the cells 

 which they construct for their offspring. 



