APIARI.E. 129 



the species is also confirmatory of the same supposition ; in- 

 deed, tlie great diversity in tliis respect observable in tliese 

 l)ees, appears to me to be analogons to a similar diversity in the 

 length of the bills of hunnning-birds, whicli, it is uell known, 

 are always adapted for reaching the nectaries of the particular 

 flowers which they usually frequent." 



In regard to tlie imnrense numbers of individuals in a col- 

 ony, Mr. Stretch, who collected them at Panama, "found a 

 nest several feet in lengtli in the hollow of a tree, containing 

 thousands of individuals, their numbers being, as he informs 

 me, apparently countless. 



"Gardner, in his travels, gives a list of such species (of 

 Melipona) as he met in the provinces of Piauliy and Goyaz, 

 where he found them numerous; in every house, he says, 'you 

 find the honey of these l)ees ;' many species, he tells us, build in 

 tlie hollow trunks of trees, others in banks ; some suspend 

 their nests from branches of trees, whilst one species constructs 

 its nest of clay, it being of large size ; the honey of this spe- 

 cies, he says, is very good." (Smith.) 



In a nest of TrUjoiui carbonaria from Eastern Australia, 

 Smith, of the British Museum, found from 400 to 500 dead 

 workers crammed in the spaces between the combs, but he 

 did not find a female among them. The combs are arranged 

 precisely similar to those of the common wasp. The numl)er of 

 lioney-pots, which are placed at the foot of the nest, amounted 

 to 250. 



Smith inclines to the opinion that the hive of Trigona con- 

 tains several prolific females ; "the accounts given of the nuil- 

 titudes inhabiting some nests is too great, I think, to render it 

 possible that one female could produce them all. Sir. Stretch 

 described a hive that he saw, occupying the interior of a decay- 

 ing tree, that measured six feet in length, and the multitude of 

 l)ees he compared to a black cloud. M. Guerin found six fe- 

 males in a nest of Melipona fnlvipes.'" 



Hill states, in Gosse's Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, 

 "that the wax of these bees [Trigona] is very unctuous and 

 dark colored, but susceptible of being whitened by bleaching. 

 The honey is stored in clusters of cups, about the size of 

 pigeon's eggs, at the bottom of the hive, and always from the 

 9 



