290 
FOREIGN BEES. 
bad often seen “ the leetle chaps collaring the big 
chaps;" evidently alluding to the massacre of the 
drones by the working-bees.* 
The bees of Guadeloupe are decidedly of a diffe- 
rent character from the European, and are probably 
of the genus Melipona. This constitutes, according 
to the system of llliger and Latreille, a genus dis- 
tinct from the genus Apis properly so called. In 
this last, the first articulation of the hinder tarsi is 
square-shaped, while in those of the other it is tri- 
angular. From some minute variation of anatomical 
structure, a portion of the genus Melipona has been 
formed into a distinct one, under the denomination 
of Trigones. Latreille specifies the mandibles as a 
distinctive character, and classes under the genus 
Trigones those whose mandibles are toothed, and 
under that of Melipona, such as have these organs 
smooth. Their habits also differ; the former build- 
ing their nest in the open air, suspended from the 
branches of trees; the latter constructing their 
* Since writing the above, the author has received a swarm 
of Bee3 from Jamaica, which unfortunately died on the 
passage. Upon the most minute examination, no difference 
could be perceived between these strangers and our own 
home-bred insects, either in the class of Workers or Males; 
the Queen could not be found. It must be observed, how- 
ever, that besides this, which we consider identical with the 
domestic bee of Northern Europe, there is another species 
cultivated in Jamaica of a small black kind, of the habits of 
which we are not aware. In one of the combs of the above 
imported hive, was found the larva represented in PI. VIII. 
with the moth into which it was metamorphosed. 
