APIS. 
321 
and the joints conterminous, the tongue robust; the 
thorax is nearly quadrate; the legs are nearly naked, 
the four anterior very slender; the posterior tibice slightly 
curved, convex externally; the posterior plant® more 
robust, and more convex externally than their tibiae, 
they are regularly oblong, and without the basal auricle, 
the rest of the joints of the tarsi are very short. The 
abdomen robust, and obtuse at its extremity, but its 
seventh segment is concealed beneath; the ventral seg¬ 
ments concave longitudinally. 
NATIVE SPECIES. 
1. mellifica , Linnaeus. (Plate XYI. fig. 4 $ ? ° .) 
mellifica, Kirby. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
The name of this genus, Apis, adopted by Linnaeus 
as the classical generic name of the bee, although with 
him it comprised the whole modern family of these in¬ 
sects, but which, as now restricted, in accordance with 
its limitation exclusively to the congeners of his adopted 
type, is the ancient Latin vernacular name of the hone}^ 
bee, and to which it has been ever since uniformly 
attached. This name, as shown by its derivative mean¬ 
ing, was originally imposed with direct reference to the 
insect’s constructive habits, as was the case with the 
names given to it in the more primitive languages be¬ 
fore referred to, and which is also the origin of its Teu¬ 
tonic and Scandinavian appellations— Biene, Bie, and Bi, 
whence our own common name for it is obtained through 
the Saxon Beo, and we have beside Bye or bee, signi¬ 
fying a dwelling. From this circumstance it would 
seem that a very early and universal discernment existed 
Y 
