16 



Riley — Presidential Address. 



of rock, generally building a single comb as much as six feet 

 long and two or three feet wide. Great quantities of wax and 

 honey are obtained from this bee by the bee-hunters in India and 

 the islands southeast of Asia. It has not been permanently do- 

 mesticated ; nor is it certain that it can be. The workers of 

 this species are about the size of the queens of Apis meUiJiqt, or 

 from seven-eights of an inch to an ^nch long. The bodies of the 

 bees are slender and wasp-like, and beautifully marked across 

 the abdomen with bright orange bands. (See Note 2.) 



While the different species of the genus Apis thus differ in size, 

 coloration, temperament and habit, there is comparatively slight 

 variations in structure; a necessary inference for every zoologist. 

 But if we study the other species of the family Apida?, we shall 

 find every variation, and obtain a very good idea of how the 

 special organs in Apis may have been evolved and perfected 

 from simpler organs in other genera. This may be illustrated 

 by a few sketches of some of the more important structures, as 

 for instance, the polliniferous organs and the wax producing ap- 

 paratus. (See Figs. 1, 2 and 3.) The figures already thrown on 



Fio. 3. — Wax discs of social hees : a, Apis worker; d, Apis queen ; c, Melipona 

 worker ; d, Boinbus worker — all enlarged. (Original.) 



the screen very well illustrate the fact that the modification of 

 structure and hairy vestiture, which facilitate the collection and 

 transportation of pollen, while exUibited, perhaps, in the great- 

 est perfection in the Hive Bee, is nevertheless an evolution from 



