The MALE or DRONE differs from both in being considerably more robust and more completely cylindrical, and very much more densely pubescent; the _compound eyes_ contiguous at the summit, occupying the whole of the vertex, and nearly all the lateral portions of the face, extending below to the articulation of the mandibles, their pubescence much shorter but denser than in the other sex; the _ocelli_ large, and seated at the top of the central portion of the face in a close triangle, a little above the insertion of the antennæ, and in front of the conjunction of the compound eyes, the lateral ones of the triangle being closely contiguous to the upper inner edge of those eyes; the _antennæ_ are more robust and rather longer; the _cibarial apparatus_ very short; the _labial palpi_ about three-fourths the length of the tongue, and the joints conterminous, the _tongue_ robust; the _thorax_ is nearly quadrate; the _legs_ are nearly naked, the four anterior very slender; the _posterior tibiæ_ slightly curved, convex externally; the _posterior plantæ_ more robust, and more convex externally than their tibiæ, 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 segments_ concave longitudinally. NATIVE SPECIES. 1. _mellifica_, Linnæus. (Plate XVI. fig. 4 ♂♀⚲.) _mellifica_, Kirby. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. The name of this genus, _Apis_, adopted by Linnæus as the classical generic name of the bee, although with him it comprised the whole modern family of these insects, 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 honey-bee, and to which it has been ever since uniformly attached. This name, as shown by its derivative meaning, 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 before referred to, and which is also the origin of its Teutonic 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, signifying _a dwelling_. From this circumstance it would seem that a very early and universal discernment existed of its ingenuity and skill, its significant name being everywhere analogous.