162 
BRITISH BEES. 
and where they are fringed with brief bristles. The 
peculiar form of the tongue in this section suggests its 
being separated into two subsections, that organ being in 
the first subsection very broad and bilobated, which gives 
those insects their position in the series by approximating 
them to the preceding family of the Diploptera , or 
wasps, whose tongues have the same bilobate form, but 
each lobe in them is furnished with a gland. These 
tongues, in both cases of the wasps and these bees, may 
conduce to the building or plastering habits of the in¬ 
sects. The form may aid the wasp and the Colletes, 
the first in the moulding of its hexagonal papier-mache 
cells, as it may the second in shaping and embroidering 
the silk-lined abode of its embryonic progeny. Why 
Prosopis should have this organization is difficult to 
conceive, unless it be from an analogy of structure inci¬ 
dentally previously referred to, beyond which any special 
object has hitherto escaped detection. 
In the second section of the Andrenidee, which have 
the paraglossse entire and terminating in a point, the 
tongues all also terminate acutely with a lateral incli¬ 
nation inwards. In the ianceolate-tongued tribe they 
bulge outwards laterally, although pointed at the apex. 
All this subfamily of Andrenidee, excepting only the 
two genera reputed parasites, viz. Prosopis and Sphe- 
codes, are essentially Scopulipedes, densely brush-legged, 
for the conveyance of pollen which they vigorously 
collect; but from the brevity of their tongues they are 
restricted to flowers with shallow petals and apparent 
nectaria, their favourite plants being the abounding 
Composites and Umbelliferce , as well as the Rosacea;, 
whence they derive the agreeable odours which many of 
them emit upon being captured. 
