Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/262

258 humble-bees (such as the genera Coelioxys, Melecta, Epeolus, &c.) which are therefore called Cuckoo-bees. The Apathi may be appropriately designated by the name of False Humble-bees. A. Campestris, A. Barbutellus, A. Vestalis, and A. Rupestris, are among our indigenous examples; and there are doubtless many foreign kinds, of which we have received as yet no satisfactory account. The term Psithyrus was formerly proposed for this genus, but that having been previously employed in another branch of Zoology, Mr. Newman has supplanted it by that used above, which ignifies, without affection (privative and  affectio.) The characters may be briefly given as follows: Labium forming an obtuse angle anteriorly; posterior tibiæ convex above, neither provided with an apparatus for carrying pollen, nor with an auricle at the base of the planta; abdomen oblong, the anal segment dilated into an angle on both sides.

A. vestalis is rather a large insect, measuring from seven to nine lines. The female is black and hirsute; the head subglobose; the thorax with a yellow band anteriorly; abdomen oblong, inclining to globose, incurved at the extremity, the third segment yellow at the margin on both sides, the whole of the fourth and the sides of the fifth whitish, the anal one smooth, and curved inwards. In the male, (fig. 2,) the posterior fascia is broad and whitish, the extremity itself with a patch of black hairs; wings a little dusky; the apex and the larger nervures nearly black; legs black.