22 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



College, near Buitenzorg, these diminutive bees immediately 

 went vigorously to work " cleaning house," and were soon bring 

 ing in pollen and honey. When the flight-hole was much larger 

 than was necessary in order to permit a single Trigona to pass 

 in or out, the ants, large and small, were even more troublesome 

 than in Ceylon. Individuals from the hives of Apis mellifica 

 (Cyprian and Palestine varieties) which I had brought with me 

 also made efforts to get into the nest or hive of Trigonae. The 

 latter immediately began the construction of an entrance-tube, 

 but did not add to it after I contracted the entrance, and until 

 some one disturbed the cover during my absence the small size 

 of the entrance with perhaps some aid from the surrounding wall 

 of sticky propolis enabled the tiny occupants to hold their fort. 

 I found the cover awry one day and ants in full possession. The 

 Trigonas had been destroyed and their honey and immature bees 

 taken. No honey-bees were seen about the box, but perhaps 

 they had helped at the banquet and "had taken leave as soon as 

 the first course (the honey) had been disposed of. 



As the tubular entrances were only constructed, as far as I ob 

 served, when the flight-holes themselves were rather large, and 

 when these were small the bees seemed to be secure without 

 such passage-ways, I naturally concluded that the tubes served 

 as defences only. Their whole arrangement, combined with the 

 labyrinthine envelope of the brood-nest, is well calculated to afford 

 considerable security to the stores of these stingless bees, for any 

 other insect wishing to reach the honey of the Meliponas or 

 Trigonas must needs pass, first of all, the length of the outer 

 tube or barrier-wall where such has been constructed, then 

 through the narrow entrance past the sentinels, down the inner 

 tube into the brood-nest, and thence through the labyrinthine 

 passages of the envelope to the outside of the brood-nest where 

 the cells for holding honey and pollen are found attached to the 

 inner walls of the cavity which has been selected as a home by 

 the colony. Once there and gorged with honey the robber 

 would have to run the same gauntlet to get 'out, if indeed he 

 could remember his way through the labyrinthine passages, which 

 the Meliponas and Trigonas traverse with ease and rapidity. It 

 is easily understood that this arrangement also prevents the ready 

 escape of the odor of honey which might attract pilferers. 



The bees which I saw in nests having no outside entrance- 

 tubes did not seem to be incommoded by the small amount of 

 light which entered through the flight-hole. Nor are our bees 

 of the sister genus Apis. Even Bombus, of which I have often 

 had a dozen or more nests at a time in small wooden hives, is 

 not apparently disturbed by the light which enters through a 

 half-inch hole. Some varieties of our Apis mcllijica construct 

 corresponding entrance-defences to protect themselves in regions 

 where the death's-head moth and wasps are abundant. 



