Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/247

243 COMMON HUMBLE BEE. (BOMBUS TERRESTRIS.) XIV.

its present restricted sense the genus Bombus may be briefly characterised by the following definition; body oblong, and very hairy; head narrower than the thorax, usually triangular, the antennæ having thirteen joints in the female, fourteen in the male, geniculated at the second joint; exterior palpi exarticulate, interior two-jointed; ligula three-lobed, the central lobe elongated; labium transverse sub-linear; hinder tibiæ provided with a hollow expansion for collecting pollen; claws bifid at the apex.

The species named above is one of the best known, and an account of its habits will convey a pretty accurate notion of the proceedings of the rest, although they vary somewhat in their modes of life. In the female, the head and antennæ are black, the mouth with rufescent hairs; proboscis scarcely longer than the head; thorax black, with a bright-yellow band anteriorly; basal segment of the abdomen black, second yellow, third black, the three posterior ones white; wings light-brown, the thick nervures dark coloured, the finer ones ferruginous; legs black and hairy, the pollen, brush, and spines ferruginous. The male has the thoracic and abdominal bands either