([Plate VI.] fig. 3, and Plate VII. fig. 1.)
Apis ** d, 2 a, Kirby.
Gen. Char.: Head transverse, nearly as wide as the thorax; vertex depressed; ocelli placed in a curved line upon its posterior margin; antennæ short, subclavate, basal joint of flagellum globose, its second joint longer than the scape, very slender, the rest of the joints subequal; face flattish; clypeus protuberant; labrum quadrate, convex; mandibles distinctly bidentate and obtuse; cibarial apparatus very long; tongue very long, transversely striated, and with a small knob at the extremity; paraglossæ about one-third the length of the tongue, acuminate; labial palpi slender, more than half the length of the tongue, membranous, the basal joint as long again as the remainder, the second joint very slender and very acute; the two terminal joints very short and subclavate, inserted before the extremity of the second joint; labium short, one-fourth the length of the tongue, its inosculation concave; maxillæ hastate, not so long as the tongue; maxillary palpi one-third the length of the maxillæ, six-jointed, the basal joint very robust, the rest filiform, the second the longest, and all the rest decreasing in length and substance. Thorax oval, densely pubescent, which conceals its divisions; metathorax truncated; wings with three submarginal cells, closed, the second receives the first recurrent nervure in its centre, and the third, which bulges externally, receives the second at its extremity; legs setose, the exterior of the posterior tibiæ and plantæ moderately so, and the interior of the latter also densely setose; the second joint of the posterior tarsi inserted beneath and within the termination of their plantæ; the claw-joint longer than the two preceding; claws bifid, the inner tooth distant from the external. Abdomen ovate, subpubescent, the fifth segment densely fimbriated and the terminal segment with an emarginate appendage.
In the MALES the antennæ are very similar, but the mandibles are more acutely bidentate, and with the exception of the form of the legs, the general aspect is like the female; the legs, although setose, are less conspicuously so, the intermediate tarsi in the first section of the genus being longer than the rest of the entire leg, and are fringed externally with very long hair, or it is restricted to the plantæ of that leg and then it is short and very rigid; the entire limb stretched out extends beyond the widest expansion of the superior wings. The ABDOMEN is also less retuse than in the female, at its basal segment.
In the second division of this genus, of which Anthophora furcata may be considered to be the type, the general habit is precisely the same, but the insects are not so pubescent, and there is a greater similarity between the sexes. The intermediate legs also, although long in the male, are not so extremely long as they are in the first section.
NATIVE SPECIES.
§ Males with elongate tufted intermediate tarsi, and differing from female in colour.
1. retusa, Linnæus, ♂ ♀. 6 lines. ([Plate VI.] fig. 3 ♂ ♀.)
Haworthana, Kirby.
Haworthana, Curtis, viii. 357.