INSECT LIFE IN INDIA. • 673 



active or to his successors if he is dead. It is not every day or in every 

 country that one can see paintings seventeen hundred years old, and it 

 will be indeed a pity if the present opportunity be not taken for esta- 

 blishing the periodical ejection of the bees and bats of Ajanta, on the 

 twofold grounds of preserving the paintings and ensuring the safety of 

 sightseers ; while as for the " barbarians " they will soon have become 

 creatures of the past. Furthermore, any steps taken in the direction of 

 facilitating the journey to Ajanta, and rendering a short sojourn there 

 more convenient than at present, would invoke the heartfelt thanks of 

 modern pilgrims to the desolate shrines of one of the grandest of religions. 



A. dorsata appears to be common all over the country and 

 goes up to over 7,000 feet in the Himalayas. When disturbed it will 

 attack, with the utmost fierceness, both man and animals. There is a 

 considerable trade in its honey and wax, but to obtain them the comb 

 has to be destroyed and the natives are very careless in their method of 

 collection, pressing the whole into great balls containing pieces of twig, 

 dirt and other impurities. It is doubtful whether this bee can ever be 

 domesticated. Could it be done there can be little doubt as to the great 

 commercial value it would have. 



Apis indica (see Fig. 65) is a smaller bee, whose habits are like the 

 European A. melliftca, which builds in hollow trees, holes in walls, &c. 

 Binghamf states that in Burma, where no species of honey-bee is domes- 

 ticated by the Burman, he has more than once seen a house (the houses 

 are chiefly built of wood) rendered nearly uninhabitable by a swarm of 

 A. indica taking possession of the hollows under the wooden staircases, 

 or of the space between the outer walls when these-were built double. 



The honey of A. indica is particularly sweet and attempts have been 



made to domesticate it in various parts of \ I 



India including parts of Bombay, the ^^-^^^^ m&m-$ ^ss=^ 



Kuram Valley, most districts of the "'v^j^^^g^sg^^^^ 



Himalayas, and Assam. In the latter pro- ^^^^^^^^^^^ 



vince the matter has been taken up by *\Jr fll jfcfijj Ik 



the Agricultural Department. The method f ^w \ 



of rearing as practised in the Khasi Hills 



, , ,., , t , Fl G- 65.— Apis indica. The 



is crude and not unlike the old system Indian honey bee. 



of rearing bees in skips practised at Home. (India.) 



Attempts are to be made to introduce the bar-frame hive. 



f Bingham. Blanf. Faun. Br. India. Hyraenoptera, Vol. I, 557. 



