1L^8 IIYMEXOPTEHA. 



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

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

 appease their thirst. Tlie Wax-moths, Gdlleria cereana and 

 Achroia alveai'la, do much harm hy consuming the Avax and 

 thus breaking doAvn the cells, and hy filling the hive with 

 their webs.* l-tf-t 



The genus Apis is indigenous in South America, though the 

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

 dies. Our Honey-bee is replaced in the tropics by the stingless, 

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

 ous colonies. The cells of Meliprnta are hexagonal, nearly 

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

 honey-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 Melij)onas are small insects, having ^c/h^.s shoiier 

 than the ahdnmen. the latter beijig very convex and oblong : 

 their mandibles ncA^er being dentate ; while the Trigonns have 

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

 short, somewhat triangular, while the mandibles are serrated, 

 denticulate, or sometimes edentate. The Mf^Iipovns are re- 

 stricted to the new world, while Tn'gona extends into Africa. 

 India, and Australasia. 



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

 by the different species varies greath^ in quality : from tlie 

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

 honey of the species '■ Mombxca' is said to be bhtck 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. The different relative length of the tongue in 



♦Explanation of Plate 2. Paras^ites of the Honey-bee. Fig. 1, Phorn incras- 

 xrita; Vig;. 2, i>Uj)a; Fip:. 3, lai'va. Fij?. 4, Jirmila creca; Fifr. 5, larvii. Fiff. 6, Tri- 

 c.kodes apUiriux : a, hu'v.i ; b, pupa. Fij;. 7, AfeloU anfiunticollM ; Fig. S, freshly hatchetl 

 larva; Fig. 0, second stage of larva; Fig. 10, first stage of .«cmi-pnpa; Fig. 11, 

 luipa. Fig. 12, Sti/lnps Childreui \n the hcjly of a wild bee, Anrlrcna; Fig. 13, top 

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

 Fig. 1.5, yfaror mellitophoru.t, a parasitic fungus. Fig. 115, unknown larva found in 

 nest of Ilumblc-bcc. Descriptions of the insect parasites will be given beyond. 



