128 HYMEXOPTERA. 



enough, only in the drones, though it is the workers which 

 frequent watery places (where the worm deposits its eggs) to 

 appease their thirst. The Wax-moths, Galleria cereana and 

 Achroia cdvearia, do much harm by consuming the wax and 

 thus breaking down the cells, and by filling the hive with 

 their webs.* 



The genus Ajns is indigenous in South America, though the 

 Honey-bee has been extensively introduced into the West In- 

 dies. Our Honey-l)ee is replaced in the tropics by the stiugless, 

 minute bees, which store up honey and live in far more numer- 

 ous colonies. The cells of Melipona ai'e hexagonal, nearly 

 approaching in regularity those of the Hive-bee, while the 

 honev-cells are irregular, much larger cavities, which hold about 

 one-half as much honey as a cell of the Humble-bee. From a 

 paper on the Brazilian Honey-bees, read by Mr. F. Smith be- 

 fore the Entomological Society of London, March, 1863, he 

 states that the 3Ieliponas are small insects, having wings shorter 

 than the abdomen, the latter being very convex and oblong ; 

 their mandibles never being dentate ; while the Trigonas have 

 the wings more ample, and longer than the abdomen, wliich is 

 short, somewhat triangular, while the mandibles are serrated, 

 denticulate, or sometimes edentate. The Meliponas are re- 

 stricted to the new world, while Trigona extends into Africa, 

 India, and Australasia. 



"All these bees are honey gatherers, but the honey collected 

 b}' the different species varies greatly in quality : from the 

 nests of some it is excellent ; from others, worthless. The 

 honey of the species ^ Mombnca' is said to be black and sour, 

 the quality being dependent on species of flowers from which 

 the honey is collected. This great difference in the honey of 

 the various species is apparently confirmatory of the fact that 

 each species confines itself to particular flowers, never visiting 

 any other kind. Tlie different relative length of the tongue in 



*ExPLAXATiox OF PLATE 2. P.ivasites of the Honey-bee. Fig. 1, PJiora incrns- 

 sata; Fig. 2, pupa; Fig. 3, larva. Fig. 4, Brmtla caca; Fig. 5, larva. Fig. 6, Tri- 

 diodes iipinriim .- a, larva ; 6, pupa. Fig. 7, Mdoe angusiicolUs : Fig. 8, freshly hatched 

 larva; Fig.!), second stage oflai-va; Fig. 10, first stage of semi-pupa; Fig. 11, 

 pupa. Fig. 12, Stylops CliUdreni in the body of a \vild bee, Andrena; Fig. 13, top 

 view of the same removed from its host; Fig. 14, male of the same; a, side view. 

 Fig. l.T, Mucor meUitophoriis, a parasitic fungus. Fig. 16, unknown larva found in 

 nest of Ilumble-bee. Descriptions of the insect parasites will be given beyond. 



