melliphagan

[MELIPHAGAN.] měl-liph-a-go us, a. [MELIPHAGOUS.] měl-lip-o-na, tmě-lip-o-ną, subst . [Lat. mel (gen it. mell is ) =honey, and pono to put, place, or lay. Or Gr. mel i , and ponos =work.] Entom.: A genus of social bees, intermediate between Apis and Bombus, but more akin to the latter. Mellipona domestic a , a Mexican species, described and figured by Pierre Huber, builds cells of two kinds, some small cylindrical ones for the larvæ, and others large for holding honey; the latter are intermediate in structure between the cells of the humble bee and the hive bee. (For details and the argument thence adduced that what may be called the mathematical instinct of the hive bee arose through natural selection, see Dar win: Origin of Species (ed. 1882), p. 220.)