640 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



8. MEXICAN DOMESTIC BEES. (MELIPONA. BEECHEI.) 



Captain Beechey, when at Xalisco, obtained two hives constructed 

 by these bees, which he brought to England in H. M. S. Blossom. 

 One of them has been presented to M. Huber, and the other to the. 

 Linnean Society. They are formed of hollow trees, a portion of 

 which, of between two and three feet in length, has been cut off, and a 

 hole is bored through the sides into the hollows at about the middle, 

 and the ends of the hives stopped up with clay. These hives are 

 usually suspended on a tree in a horizontal position, with the open- 

 ing into the cavity directed also horizontally, and are speedily taken 

 possession of by the bees. Their interior arrangement differs mate- 

 rially from that of the European bee, some of the layers of the comb 

 assuming a vertical and some a horizontal position, the cells of the 

 latter being most numerous. All the combs, both vertical and hori- 

 zontal, are composed of a single series of cells applied laterally to 

 each other, and not, as in the European bee-hive, of two series, 

 the one applied against the extremities of the other. The cells 

 appear destined solely for the habitation of the young bees. The 

 combs are placed together, at some distance from the opening of 

 the hives, and surrounding them are several layers of wax, as thin 

 as paper, irregular in their form, and placed at some little distance 

 from each other : externally to these are placed the sacs for con- 

 taining the honey, which are generally large and rounded in form. 

 They vary in size, some of them exceeding an inch and a half in 

 diameter. They are supported by processes of wax from the wood 

 of the cavity, or from each other, and are frequently placed side by 

 side ; but their disposition is altogether irregular, and bears some 

 resemblance to that of a bunch of grapes. Some of the honey sacs 

 are placed apart from the others, and form a distinct cluster. 



From this irregular position of the honey sacs, a most important 

 advantage is gained by the cultivators of the Mexican hive bee, as, 

 in order to possess themselves of the honey, all that is necessary is, 

 to remove the plug from the end of the cavity employed as a hive, 

 and to introduce the hand and withdraw the honey. The store of 

 the laborious bee is thus transferred to the proprietor of the hive, 

 without injuring, and almost without disturbing, its inhabitants. The 

 end of the hive is then again stopped up, and the bees hasten to lay 

 in a fresh store of honey. A hive treated in this way affords, dur- 

 ing the summer, at least two harvests. 



The bee itself, by which this nest is constructed, is smaller than 

 the European hive bee ; its abdomen especially being much shorter. 

 It is distinguished also from the European race of hive bees by the 

 form of the first joint of its hinder tarsi, which is that of a triangle, 

 with its apex applied to the tibia. Its technical characters are inter- 

 mediate between the two genera melipona and trigona of M. La- 

 treille, one of the mandibles being toothed, and the other nearly 



