65 



Genus LX. APIS. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Antenna filiform and short. Mouth armed 

 with jaws, and having an inflected proboscis 

 enclosed in a bivalve sheath. Palpi four, 

 unequal, and filiform. Wings Hat or without 

 plaits. Sting in the females and neuters, 

 concealed within the abdomen. Tarsi with 

 5 articulations, the first very long. 



General Observations, 

 The bees which compose a hive are gene- 

 rally very numerous. Of the females there are 

 rarely two, and never three ; of the males from 

 two to nine hundred and more ; and of the 

 neuters not less than fifteen or sixteen thousand. 

 The three different kinds may be easily distin- 

 guished. The males, or drones, by their being 

 larger and more downy than the neuters, or 

 workmen. Their head is larger and rounder • 

 their eyes also are larger, their trunk is shorter 

 they have no sting, and the hind feet have not 

 the rows of hair observable in the workmen. 

 G3 



