. British bees : an introduction to the study of the natural history and economy of the bees indigenous to the British Isles . Bees; Hymenoptera. GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 45 of making the inferior cling to the superior wing by a series of booklets with which its 'anterior edge is fur- nished at about half the length of that wing, which gives to the thus consolidated combination of the two a greater force in beating the air to accelerate its progress. That the insect has a control over the operation of these booklets is very evident, for, upon settling, it usually unlocks them, and the anterior
. British bees : an introduction to the study of the natural history and economy of the bees indigenous to the British Isles . Bees; Hymenoptera. GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 45 of making the inferior cling to the superior wing by a series of booklets with which its 'anterior edge is fur- nished at about half the length of that wing, which gives to the thus consolidated combination of the two a greater force in beating the air to accelerate its progress. That the insect has a control over the operation of these booklets is very evident, for, upon settling, it usually unlocks them, and the anterior are often seen separated and raised perpendicularly over the insect; but that this can be mechanically effected also is shown sometimes in pinning a bee for setting, when by a lucky accident the pin catches the muscles which act upon the wings, and they become distended, as in flight, closely linked together. Both the dia- gram and the description of this superior wing I borrow from an elaborate paper of my own in the first volume of the ' Transactions of the En- tomological Society of London,^ wherein I gave a tabulated view, in chronolo- gical order, of the nomenclature introduced by succes- sive entomologists in the use they made of the anterior wing of the Hymenoptera for generic subdivision, and which I subsequently applied to my own work upon the ' Fossorial Hymenoptera of Great Britain.' Attached to the mesothorax in the centre, above and behind, are the scutellum and post-scutellum, which in colouring or form often yield subsidiary generic or specific characters. On each side of the mesothorax in front, above the pectus, or breast, and just below and before the articulation of the anterior wings, there is a. Fig. 12.—Superior wiug. a, marginal cell; b, first cubital or submarginal cell; 0, second ditto; i, third ditto; e and /, first and second recurrent Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhan
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, booksubjecthyme
