APIS. 
319 
joints articulated just before its acute apex ; maxilla 
broad, hastate; labium half the length of the tongue, its 
inosculation straightly transverse, not so long as the 
tongue and acuminate; the maxillary palpi extremely 
short, the basal one the shortest. Thorax subglobose ; 
prothorax inconspicuous; scutellum lunulate and im¬ 
pending over the post-scutellum, which is transverse and 
linear; metathorax truncated; wings with a long mar¬ 
ginal cell extending nearly to the end of the wing, and 
obtuse at its extremity, three submarginal cells which 
terminate at less than half the length of the marginal, 
the second the largest and receiving the first recurrent 
nervure towards its commencement, the third oblique 
and narrow and receiving the second recurrent nervure 
just beyond its centre; legs slender, subpilose; the 
anterior and intermediate tibia with a spur, their planta 
with a dense short close brush all round, the posterior 
tibia triangular, glabrous within, externally smooth, 
shining, and irregularly concave, the edges fringed lon¬ 
gitudinally with long hair curving inwards, and forming 
the sides of the corbiculum, or basket, which conveys the 
materiel of the nest, the apex transverse and pectinated 
with short rigid setse, but wholly without spurs; the 
gjlanta oblong, not quite so long as the tibiae, the sides 
nearly parallel, the upper edge fringed with long loose 
hair, subglabrous externally, but furnished internally 
with ten transverse, parallel rows of short stiff golden 
hair, with an auricle at the outer angle, forming collec¬ 
tively a dense brush, and its oblique apex pectinated 
with short stiff setse, the remainder of the tarsal joints 
short, the fourth the shortest, and the claw joint the 
longest; the claws short, robust, and bifid. Abdomen 
retuse at the base, subcylindrical, convex above, and ter- 
