14 THE ENTOJIOLOGISt's RECORD. 



from those in which it has always lived. Also on account of its size, and 

 the power of its flight, the Giant Bee will travel as much as a hundred 

 miles before again settling down to home life.'''- It is not so much 

 the honey gathered by these bees which is valuable to the natives, but 

 the large quantities of comb they produce, the latter, being melted down 

 into wax, forms a valuable article of industry in India. The hill- 

 men do not trouble much about the honey, but are said to eat the 

 young bees and larvne with great gusto. Another hindrance to domes- 

 tication is the way they build their nests, quite in the open, entirely 

 unprotected, and always single combs from about five feet to six feet 

 in length, and about two feet to three feet in depth. Some fine 

 specimens of these combs are to be seen in the South Kensington 

 Natural History Museum. When a species of insect has been used to 

 certain habits for endless generations, in fact has never known 

 any others, it will be readily understood how difficult would be the 

 problem presented to us did we attempt to keep such a refractory 

 creature in confinement. The only attempt made seems to have been 

 a failure. A queen bee was tied by a thread to a stick and placed in 

 the hollow of a tree, and after two to three months a very small piece 

 of comb was found, and the experiment proving useless was aban- 

 doned. Since this a writer to the last Government report says that 

 " He had seven hives all well and fed for the Avinter," but in the 

 spring the " little brutes " decamped by twenty and thirty a day, until 

 each queen in turn left its hive in disgust. Clipping the queen's 

 wings, as is done in modern bee-keeping, would prove fatal to Apis 

 dnnata. On account of her uncontrollable character she Avould prob- 

 ably be lost. The question arises, if we cannot domesticate Aj)iii 

 ilorsata itself, could Ave by judicious crossing attain the desired end ? 

 The best ansAver to this question Avill, I think, be found in the fact 

 that European bees exist which are closely allied to a species found in 

 northern India, Avhich never crossed Avith Apis dnrsata. All these 

 facts considered, there only remains Apis indica, very similar to our 

 European bee, with which domestication might be a success, but if 

 any real advantage Avould arise therefrom or not is doubtful, but no 

 doubt can remain that the facts relating to Apis dnrsata must for eA'er 

 bar the Avay to its domestication. 



* A2)is dorsata is, however, inclined to fly somewhat chimsily, and to visit 

 flowers somewhat listlesslv. 



Notes on the British Myrmecophilous fauna (excluding Coleoptera). 



By HORACE DONISTHORPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 

 Ants' nests, as is well knoAvn, are inhabited all over the AA'orld by 

 many different kinds of creatures. These occur in such situations 

 from various reasons. Some are true guests of the ants, being fed by 

 them like their OAvn oftspring ; from others, such as some of the 

 beetles, aphides, and scale insects, the ants obtain SAveet juices Avhich 

 are excreted by them. Many are scavengers in the nests, feeding on 

 the dead bodies of the ants and their prey, waste vegetable substances 

 and other refuse. Others, again, are parasites in the true sense of the 

 word, living in, or on, the ants themselves, their eggs, or larvae. 

 Numbers are more or less like ants in appearance, such as some 

 spiders, beetles, bugs, etc., and these " mimics " are generally found 



