Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/267

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AGLAE CAERULEA.
263

AGLAE CAERULEA.

Plate XIX. Fig. 3.

Aglaé caerulea, Encyclop. Methodique.—Griffiths Cuvier, Insecta, vol. ii. Pl. 107.

This group, peculiar, like the former, to South America, was separated from Euglossa by M.M. Lepeletier and Serville. The antennæ are long and filiform, inserted in a frontal cavity, consisting of twelve joints in the female and thirteen in the male; labial palpi four-jointed; ocelli three; scutellum depressed, the sides prolonged behind into two spiniform projections. The species are probably parasitical, for they are destitute of the apparatus requisite for collecting pollen. The species represented may be regarded as the type. It is a large insect compared with the generality of its associates, of a violet blue colour, very glossy, and covered, though not very thickly, with black hairs; antennæ black; sides of the abdomen, which bear tufts of hair, brownish; wings likewise of that colour with a slight golden reflection; labrum and scutellum very glossy.

It is a native of Cayenne.


CENTRIS NOBILIS.

Plate XX. Fig. 1.

Centris has the antennæ filiform in both sexes, of twelve joints in the female and thirteen in the male; the third joint always slender throughout its whole length but suddenly enlarged at the tip; mandibles with four teeth on the inner edge; maxillary palpi