64 HYMENOPTERA 



CHAP. 



The colonies of " Kootchar " can be united by taking away a queen 

 and then packing her brood-nest, bees and all, against that of 

 the colony it is to be joined to. This cannot be done with the 

 " Karbi." The account given by Mr. Hockings contains a great 

 many other interesting details, and there can be no doubt that 

 a full account of the natural history of these Insects would be 

 very instructive. 



Fritz Miiller has recorded a singular case bearing on the 

 instinct of these social Insects : he says that a nest of a small 

 Trigona was built in a hollow tree, and that as a consequence of 

 the irregularity of the hole the bees were obliged to give a very 

 irregular shape to their combs of honey. These bees were 

 captured and put in a spacious box (presumably together with 

 the irregular comb, but this he unfortunately does not mention) : 

 after a year, " when perhaps not a single bee survived of those 

 which had come from the canella tree," they still continued to 

 build irregular combs, though quite regular combs were built by 

 several other communities of the same species that he had kept. 

 These bees, he also tells us, do not use pure wax for the construc- 

 tion of their combs, but mix it with resin or gum that gives it a 

 peculiar odour and appearance. He captured two communities 

 of a common Melipona, one of which had the combs made of dark 

 reddish brown, the other of pale yellowish brown, wax, and in 

 captivity in a distant locality each of the two communities 

 continued to form its comb in the same way, thus showing the 

 continuity that prevails in these cases as long as circumstances 

 permit. Miiller thinks this due to imitation, but it seems at 

 least as probable that it is due to perception of the properties of 

 the nest. The nest has a certain colour that the worker-bee 

 matches. 



Several species of the Melipona and Trigona were imported 

 from Brazil to France, and kept there for some time in captivity 

 by M. Drory. Girard has published 1 some details as to these 

 colonies, and is of opinion that some of them indicate an in- 

 telligence or instinct superior to that of the honey-bee. The 

 queen -bee of M. scutellaris seems to display more intelligence 

 than the corresponding sex of A. mellifica. The mode of feeding 

 the larvae apparently differs from that of A. mellifica, a provision 

 of pollen being first placed in the cell, then some honey ; when 

 1 Ann. Soc. ent. France (5), iv. 1874, p. 567. 



