A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



build in the ground are known as Buira, which means "earth-honey" 

 — from Ubu = earth. Irussu means "much honey" (assu = great). 

 Other names of bees are Mandassaia, Mandaguary, and above all 

 Jaty; and to these we may add Portuguese names, such as Sete 

 portas (seven doors), Mineiro (miner or tunneller), Limao (lemon), 

 and others. 



These names show what an important part has been played by 

 the bees of Brazil, especially in earlier times, when the country 

 was still in its natural state. Like the Indians, travellers in Brazil 

 have found an important article of diet in honey; for there are 

 many species which produce from 3 to 25 pints of honey in a 

 single nest, which, according to the species, may include a few 

 hundred inhabitants only, or from 20,000 to 70,000. The honey 

 of the stingless bees is more savoury and aromatic than European 

 honey, and some kinds are held to be altogether superior; it is, 

 of course, thin and liquid, and sets only after it has been boiled ; 

 but in Brazil it is quite usual to boil honey. As in the nests of the 

 Honey-wasps, so in those of the bees, one sometimes finds evil- 

 tasting "dog-honey" (mel de cachorro), to which the bees add 

 perspiration and dung, or even poisonous substances. There is no 

 record of any exclusively poisonous honey, but according to the 

 number of poisonous flowers blooming at any time a honey may 

 be more or less poisonous. As a rule violent vomiting results from 

 eating such honey, but a condition of intoxication has been also 

 observed, especially after eating poisonous wasp-honey. The victims 

 are said to run about like mad creatures, tear their clothes, and butt 

 with their heads Hke goats, until finally they sink to the floor in 

 convulsions. 



The nest of the Stingless Bees, though it may be situated in a 

 hollow tree, in a termites' nest, underground, or in the open, on 

 the branch of a tree, is always built on the same fundamental plan. 

 An entrance-hole, sometimes protracted outwards into a long tube, 

 leads to a short gallery, which takes the bee directly to the centre 

 of the nest. Here, in a spherical envelope of several layers of wax, 

 lie the brood-combs, either slanting or horizontal, with the cells 

 opening upwards. These combs consist of hexagonal cells, in which 

 food is stored, the egg being laid on the top of the food ; after which 

 the bees seal the cells. The larva, therefore, has to eat in dark and 

 solitary confinement, while the European bees leave the brood-cells 

 open and feed the larvae. The amount of food in the cells of the 

 Brazilian bees is of course calculated, as in the case of the Solitary 

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