EXroMOLOOY. 121 



Vcstwood estimates a community (if tlic (lomestic Boo to consist of 2000 drones, 

 60,000 workers and 1 queen. 



Triuoxa tkrminata, Smitli. Tenasserim. 



,, LjiVicEi's. Pegu. 



Trigona lariccpa or the 'Dammar Bee,' as it is called bj* Mason, is common in 

 Pegu, and is a familiar insect, which, when one is reclined in the forest, will alight 

 on the face or hand and carefully lick it, and when so engaged is readily caught. It 

 is fond of getting into the beard and hair, where it is liable to become entangled; but 

 this never puts it out of temper. The nest of this species is commonly made in 

 hollow trees, ami is songht, for the resin of which it is composed, and this substance 

 is erroneously termed "wax" by Dr. Mason, as it seems to consist rather of 

 vegetable resiti gathered in tlie forests. It is called by the Burmese ' Ptvai-nget' 

 and is e.\])osed for sale in all large bazaars, being much used, when cooked up with 

 earth oil, to caulk boats with. It is a well-known habit of many species of wasps 

 to use resinous substances in the construction of their cells. SjxM-imens sent by tlie 

 Eev. C. 8. Parish to England ar(^ said to have been identified by Mr. F. Smith with 

 2\ Imriceps, originally describc!il from Singapore. 



In 'Science Gossip,' for 1866, p. 198, the Kov. C. S. P. Pai-ish, then Chaplain "7^ 

 of Maulmain, gives a very clear account of Picai-nijet. In Mr. Parish's opinion (in 

 which 1 (Hiite concnr), Pwai-nget is composed mainly of the resinous exudation of 

 lliipea odorata and species of Diiiterocarpi. Mr. Parish thus describes the nest : 

 — "The Trujona Icecici'px builds its nest generally in the hollow of a tree, entering 

 by a snudl a])erturo. These apertures are lined with Pwai-ruiet, and sometimes only 

 show a small rim of that substance raised above the bark of the tree. Sometimes, 

 however (p(!rhaps always if undisturbed), the bees go on building outside, and adding 

 on to the rim until they have formed a wide-mouthed entrance, which ])rojects as 

 much as a foot from the tree. Tliese structures commonly assume the shape of the 

 mouth of a trumpet, flattened horizoutally, and have a perpendicular diameter of 

 a foot or so and a horizontal diameter of throe or four 'inches." Speaking of this 

 external tube Mr. Parish points out a remarkable feature of its structure. " By 

 holding this up to the light you will see three or four large cells of about an inch 

 in diameter, without any opening. I can only suppose that the object of these 

 cell walls is to strengthen tlie narrow base in its support of the larger projecting 

 mass. If so, here is another instance of a mysterious intelligence possessed by one 

 of the smallest of living creatures." Doubtless Mr. l^arisli is right in his conjecture, 

 and for countless eons before the birth of Brunei and Stephenson have these tiny 

 creatures gone on applying the principle of cell structure or a double skin in 

 mechanics, to their own dwellings, as intelligently and with as definitive an aim as 

 man himself could. According to the sketch of the projecting tube, the upper angle 

 of the structure is that which is strcngtlumed by the construction behind it of blind 

 cells. I would however venture to suggest if the true position is not hero reversed, 

 and if the blind cells in reality do not occupy the lower angle of the structure, as 

 that is the part which most requires strengthening. If, as may possibly be the case 

 in this or other instances, the cells really are placed along the upper part of the 

 structure, they would still strengthen the wall and enable the bees to work into 

 it a less amount of matei-ial than if it were unsupported from behind in that manner. 

 I would also suggest a reason for the peculiar trumpet-shaped structure, and that 

 is, to exclude water from the interior of trees selected by the insects for their nests. 

 The operation of stopping up cracks in the tree is of course an easy one, but the 

 insects would, for all that, run the risk of being drowned in their nests, by the rush 

 of water pouring down the trunk of the tree during a tropical shower, but for this 

 expanded trumpet-like aperture, slightly projecting beyond the surface of the tree 

 and to that extent elevated above the reach of the heaviest stream of rain water that 

 could ever run down it. A similar contrivance may also be noticed in some ants' 

 nests in the ground or on the side of some overhanging bank, a circular, elevated and 

 trumpet-shaped, and somewhat recurved entrance wall, a most perfect bar to the 

 entrance of water into the nest, and precisely the same in principle as the porcelain 



