BO MBITS GRANDIS. 
257 
nervures black. Length about an inch and a quarter : 
expansion of the wings two inches and a quarter. 
It is a native of Valparaiso. 
APATHUS VEST A LIS. 
Plats XVIII. Fig. 2. 
Apis vestalis, Kirby's Monog. Ap. ii. 347, PI. 13, fig. 4, — fig. 3. 
— Donov. xiii. G5, PI. 464 Combus vestalis, Stephen's 
Cutal. — Psithyrus vestalis, St. Faryeau, Curtis. 
The peculiarities on which this genus is founded, 
were pointed out, to a certain extent, by Kirby, but 
he did not avail himself of them to separate the 
group from the true humble-bees. In fact, there is 
such a striking general resemblance between the 
Apathi and Bombi, that such a separation appears at 
first sight to be doing violence to natural affinity. 
But the principal mark of distinction, the want of a 
brush ( corbicula ) for collecting masses of pollen, is a 
most important one, and might have been expected 
to influence materially the whole mode of life. 
There seems now to be no doubt, that the Apathi 
never attempt to build a nest of any kind, or to 
make any provision for their young, but deposit their 
eggs in the nests of other bees, into which they find 
access apparently without being suspected of any im- 
proper design. The larval produced by these surrep- 
titious eggs being stronger than the rightful owners, 
consume the food provided for them. They undergo 
their various changes in the same appropriated home. 
This practice is known to prevail among many other 
kinds of bees, not, however, very' closely resembling 
B 
