Wild bees, wasps and ants and other stinging insects / by Edward Saunders.

  • Saunders, Edward, 1848-1910.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Wild bees, wasps and ants and other stinging insects / by Edward Saunders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    128/176
    THE VAGARIES OF COLOUR AND STRUCTURE IN THE SEXES As a rule the male is rather smaller and especially slenderer than the female, but there are notable exceptions ; in one genus of the fossors, Myrmosa for instance, the male is many times larger than the female. In this case the male is winged and the female is wingless. Also, if there is a difference in brightness of coloration between the sexes, as a rule the male is duller than the female—this is especially the case among the bees—but if there is any eccentricity in the form of the limbs it is almost sure to occur in the male, and I think one would not go far wrong in saying that when peculiar features occur in the female, the reason for them is more or less apparent, whereas for the eccen- tricities of the male there really often seems to be no assignable cause. These male eccentricities are often exceedingly. marked. A very good