232 
BRITISH BEES. 
the extremity of their plantse ; the claw-joint being longer 
than the two preceding, and the claws acutely bifid. 
Abdomen oval, convex above, subtruncate at the base, 
where it is thickly pubescent, the other segments gla¬ 
brous on the disk ; the fifth segment fimbriated with 
decumbent short hair, and the terminal segment having 
a central triangular plate at the sides of which it is rigidly 
setose. 
The male differs in having the antennae longer than 
the thorax, filiform, but with their several joints curved, 
the curvature increasing towards the terminal joints, the 
integument of the whole of the flagellum consisting of a 
congeries of minute hexagons, the edges of which are all 
raised, and the whole resembling shagreen ; the legs have 
the usual sexual slighter and extended development, and 
are necessarily less setose; it is also deficient in the 
transverse whitish bands of decumbent hair upon the 
abdomen, which is more densely pubescent on the first 
and second segments; and the four terminal joints of 
the posterior tarsi are conterminous with their plantae. 
NATIVE SPECIES. 
1. longicornis, Linnseus. 6-7 lines. (PlateYI. fig. 2 $ $ .) 
loncjicornis , Kirby. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
This genus derives its name from the great length of 
the antennae in the male,— ev,good or great, /cepas, horn. 
The name of the genus is usually given from some 
female characteristic, or from a peculiarity common to 
both sexes, or irrespective of any direct application, but 
here we find it deduced from a feature exclusively mas¬ 
culine. Instances of the first class we see in Colletes, 
