All the legs comprise the _coxa_, or hip-joint; the _trochanter_, which is a small joint forming the connection between this and the next joint the _femur_, or thigh; the _tibia_, or shank; and the _tarsus_, or foot. The latter consists of five joints, declining in length from the first, which is generally as long as all the rest united together; the first, in the anterior pair, being called the _palmæ_, or palms; and in the four posterior _plantæ_, or soles; the other joints are called the _digiti_, or fingers, or tarsus collectively; at the extremity of the terminal one are the two claws, which are sometimes simple hooks, but usually have a smaller hooklet within; they have both lateral and perpendicular motion, and between their insertion is affixed the _pulvillus_, or cushion. The _coxæ_ in their occasional processes exhibit very useful specific characters, as do the markings and form of the remaining joints of the leg and foot, which in several genera furnish generic peculiarities. The four anterior tarsi have each a moveable spine, or spur, at their apex within, which can be expanded to the angle at which the insect wishes to place the limb, and to which it forms a collateral support; the posterior tibiæ have two each of these spurs, excepting in the genus _Apis_, which has none to this leg. Attached to this spur on the anterior tibiæ of all the bees, there is, within, a small _velum_, or sail, as it has been called; this is a small angular appendage affixed within the spur by its base. At the base of the palmæ of the same legs, and opposite the play of this velum, there is a deep _sinus_, or curved incision, the _strigilis_, called thus or the curry-comb, from the pecten, or comb of short stiff hair which fringes its edge. Upon this aperture the _velum_ can act at the will of the insect, and combined they form a circular orifice. The object of this apparatus is to keep the antennæ clean, for the insect, when it wishes to cleanse one or the other of them, lays it within this sinus of the palma, and then, pressing the velum of the spur upon it, removes, by the combined action of the comb and the velum, all excrescences or soilure from it, and this process it repeats until satisfied with the cleanliness of the organ: and this it may be frequently seen doing. This arrangement proves how essential to the well-being of the insect is the condition of its antennæ, the sinus, or strigilis, or curry-comb, as it may be called, being always adapted in size to the thickness of the antennæ, for insects being always both right- and left-handed, they therefore use the limb on each side to brush the antenna of that side. The palmæ and other joints of the tarsus of the fore legs are greatly dilated in many males, or fringed externally with stiff setæ, which give it as efficient a dilatation as if it were the expansion of its corneous substance. The anterior tarsi of the females are likewise fringed with