MEXICAN BEES. 
617 
The bee by which this nest is constructed is smaller than the European hive 
bee ; its abdomen, especially, being much shorter than that of our common species. 
Like all those American bees which approach in their habits to our European 
race, it is readily distinguished from that, and from all other hive bees yet dis- 
covered in the Old World, by the form of the first joint of its hinder tarsi, which 
is that ot a triangle, with the apex applied to the tibia. On account of this 
variation in the form of a part so important to the economy of bees, modern 
entomologists have universally agreed in the propriety of regarding the American 
races as constituting a distinct group from the bees of the Old World. M. 
Latreille has gone further, by subdividing the American bees into two genera • 
Melijiona, in which the mandibles are not toothed ; and Trigona, in which these 
organs are dentate. Of the propriety of this subdivision, which hitherto seemed 
to be supported by the general appearance of the insects referred to each group, 
the examination of the bee whose nest has just been described has given rise 
to considerable doubts. In it one of the mandibles is toothed, and the other 
is nearly entire. Its technical characters, therefore, are intermediate between 
the two genera, with a leaning toward Trigona; but its general appearance is 
entirely that of a Melipona, approaching very closely to that of Melipona favosa, 
Latr., j4.pis favosa, Jab. That it cannot be that species, or any of the nearly 
related ones described by M. Latreille in the Observations Zoologiques, is evident 
from the dentation of its mandible, and it may, therefore, be regarded as new to 
science. It is desciibed in a note*. The name which is there proposed for it is 
a just tribute to the observer, to whom we owe the first opportunity possessed in 
Europe of becoming acquainted with its habits and economy. 
Some curious stories are related by the possessors as to the manners of these 
* Melipona Beecheii. — Mel. nigrescetis, margine postico segmeniorum abdominis quinque 
anleriorum jlavo ; rnandibuM sinislrd apice bi- vel tri-dcntatd. 
Desck. — Corpus totum nigrescens, prater abdominis segmcntorum margines. 
Mandibula sinistra apice l)i- vel tri-dentata, dextera submutica: arabse pallide rufescenti- 
brunneae, basi apiceque tantum brunneo-nigris. 
Clypeus albido-villosus, maculis tribus nigris : duae laterales elongatee, unica apicalis rotundata 
Antennee articulo primo brunneo-fusco, pallidiori: reliquis saturatioribus. 
Facies inferne albido-, superne fusco-, villosa. 
Thorax totus rufescenti-tomentosus. 
Abdomen riifescenti-pubescens : segmentorum quinque anteriorum margines postici flavi. 
V enter albido-villosus : segmentorum quinque anteriorum margines postici albido-flavescentes. 
Pectus albido-tomentosum. 
Femora ttbiaque nigra;, albido-viUosm, tibia; posticse macula media rufescenti-brunnea. 
T arsi fulvi, anticd albido-, postice et ad apices, rufo-villosi. 
Ala dilute rufescentes, nervis rufescentibus, 
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