ITALIAN BEES. 



293 



ITALIAN BEES. 



of down are very bright on young bees, but 

 may be so worn oft' as to be almost or entire- 

 ly wanting on an old bee, especially on 

 those that have been in the habit of robbing 

 very much. This is the explanation of the 

 glossy blackness of robbers often seen dodg- 

 ing about the hives. Perhaps squeezing 

 through small crevices has thus worn off 

 the down, or it may be that pushingthrough 

 dense masses of bees has something to do 

 with it ; for we often see such shiny black 

 bees in great numbers, in stocks that have 

 been nearly suffocated by being confined to 

 their hives in shipping, or at other times. 

 These bands of down differ in shades of 

 color, many times, and this is the case with 



characteristic of the Italians ; for, after this 

 has worn off, the yellow bands are much 

 plainer than before. A,B, C, are the yellow- 

 bands of which we have heard so much, 

 and they are neither down, plumage, nor 

 any thing of that sort, as you will see by tak- 

 ing a careful look at an Italian on the win- 

 dow. The scale, or horny substance of which 

 the body is composed, is yellow, and almost 

 transparent, not black and opaque, as are 

 the rings of the common bee, or the lower 

 rings of the same insect. 

 The first yellow band. A, is right down next 

 the waist; now look carefully. It is very 

 plain, when you once know what to look for, 

 and no child need ever be mistaken about it. 



HOW TO TELL HYBRIDS FROM PURE ITALIANS. 



the common bee as well as with the Italian. 

 Under a common lens the bands are sim- 

 ply fine soft hair, or fur, and it is this prin- 

 cipally which gives the light-colored Ital- 

 ians their handsome appearance. You have, 

 perhaps, all noticed the progeny of some par- 

 ticular queen when they first came out to 

 play, and pronounced them the handsomest 

 bees you ever saw ; but a few months after 

 they would be no better looking than the 

 rest of your bees. This is simply because 

 they had worn off their handsome plumage 

 in the " stern realities " of hard work in the 

 fields. Occasionally you will find a queen 

 whose bees have bands nearly white in- 

 stead of yellow, and this is what has led to 

 the so-called albino bees. Wlien the plum- 

 age is gone, they are just like other Ital- 

 ians. Now, these bands of down have noth- 

 ing to do with the yellow bands that are 



At the lower edge is the first black band '■, 

 this is often only a thin sharp streak of 

 black. 



The second, B, is the plainest of all the 

 yellow bands, and can usually be seen in even 

 the very poorest hybrids. The first band of 

 down is seen where the black and yellow 

 join, but it is so faint yovi will hardly notice 

 it in some specimens. 



We have at the lower edge of the scale, as 

 before, a narrow line of black ; when the 

 down wears off, this shows nearly as broad 

 as the yellow band. 



When we come to hybrids, we shall find a 

 greater diversity; for wliile the bees from 

 one queen are all pretty iniiformly marked 

 with two bauds, another's will be of all sorts, 

 some beautifully marked Italians, some pure 

 black, others one or two banded. Some 

 will sting with great venom, while oihers 



