†† _Not parasitical._ _Collectors of pollen._ ‡ _Temporarily social._ Genus 26. BOMBUS, _Latreille_. (Plate XIV. figs. 3 and 4, and Plate XVI. figs. 1, 2, 3.) APIS ** _e_ 2, Kirby.
_Gen. Char._: BODY densely hirsute. HEAD small, subglobose, not so wide as the thorax; the _vertex_ glabrous, with a longitudinal, short, deep channel, crossed in its centre by a deeper transverse one, wherein the _ocelli_ are disposed in a very slightly-curved line; _antennæ_ short, geniculated, and filiform; the _scape_ half as long as the flagellum, the first joint of which is globose, the second subclavate, the rest short and subequal, and the terminal one compressed laterally; _face_ flat, densely pubescent; _clypeus_ subtriangular, gibbous, its base truncated, and apex convexly lobated, or straight and margined; _labrum_ lunulate; _mandibles_ broad at the base, and obscurely tridentate; _cibarial apparatus_ moderate; _tongue_ twice the length of the labium, clothed with pubescence to within a brief distance of its apex, and terminating in a small knob; _paraglossæ_ about one-fourth the length of the tongue, coadunate at the base, and acuminate; _labial palpi_ three-fourths the length of the tongue, broad at the base, and tapering to the extremity of the acute apex of the second joint, which is about one-fifth the length of the first, the two terminal joints very short and articulated laterally just before the end of the second; _labium_ one-half the length of the tongue, broadest at its base, and acutely produced in the centre of its inosculation; _maxillæ_ as long as the tongue, subhastate and acuminate; _maxillary palpi_ two-jointed, short, sometimes equal, and slightly robust, or with the basal joint very robust, and its terminal joint twice as long and linear. THORAX globose, very hirsute, whence its divisions are inconspicuous; _scutellum_ lunate; _metathorax_ truncated; _wings_ with three submarginal cells subequal, or the third the longest, and a fourth slightly commenced, the second receiving the first recurrent nervure near its centre, and the third receiving the second recurrent nervure close to its extremity; _legs_ robust, pilose, the four anterior plantæ with a dense, short, setose brush beneath; the _posterior tibiæ_ triangular, very smooth, and irregularly concave on their external surface, fringed with long pile along its two external edges, and its extremity tipped with a short pecten of stiff setæ; the _plantæ_ elongate and broad, nearly equal, externally shagreened and spinulose, with a longish auriculated process at the external angle of the superior edge, a dense brush of short, stiff hair beneath, and a short pecten of stiff setæ edging its subemarginate extremity; the _claw-joint_ the longest of the four short subsequent joints, and the _claws_ bifid. ABDOMEN ovate or globose, deflected towards its extremity, its base retuse, the last segment triangular, and terminating obtusely.