12 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



being bred for high colour ; four-banded, or even five-banded 

 bees have now become a fixed strain. Some time ago, Mr. Abram, 

 of Beecroft, obtained by careful breeding four-banded Italian bees, 

 but did not attempt to fix the strain, being convinced that breed- 

 ing bees for colour, like breeding fowls for feather, would result 

 in no advantage in their more useful qualities. 



Busch in 1855 described the Italian as follows: "The workers 

 are smooth and glossy, and the colour of the abdominal rings is a 

 medium between the pale yellow of straw and the deeper yellow 

 of ochre." 



"These rings have a narrow black edge, so that the yellow 

 (which might be called leather-coloured) constitutes the ground." 



This description tallies with that of the bee of Northern 

 Italy. Cheshire's pen describes it more accurately. He says "the 

 first abdominal ring on the dorsal side mainly faces the thorax, 

 and may be missed by careless observation ; its lower edge only is 

 black. The upper two-thirds of the second is yellow; the upper 

 third smooth and hairless, because this passes beneath the ring 

 above it when the body is contracted. A band of yellow hair 

 covers the second-third and adds much to the beauty of the bee, 

 as the hairs and ground are alike yellow. The lower-third of the 

 ring is glossy black, carrying many microscopic hairs and a minute 

 fringe. The third ring resembles the second, while the fourth and 

 fifth carry yellowish hairs, but are otherwise black ; the sixth ring, 

 black also, is nearly hairless." These are the chief points that 

 mark the pure three-banded Italian bee. 



This bee readily crosses with A. melifica, and the cross thus 

 producled, as is usual with the crossing of other animals besides 

 bees, will partake of the character of both parents, some of the 

 offspring showing the characteristics of the male stronger than 

 the markings of the female, and others retaining more of the 

 peculiarities of the mother than the father. We often see in the 

 same swarm of crossbrids, bees differently marked. 



The drones Ajjis ligustica diflFer from the workers in having 

 the upper half of their abdominal rings black and the lower half 

 yellow, and they are somewhat smaller than the drone of A. inelli- 

 fica. As compared with the worker the under side of the abdomen 

 is yellower. In colonies where the workers are found to be uniform 

 in markings the queens greatly vary, some are dark and may be 

 mistaken by amateui's for the queens of A. titellificd. Other queens 

 are to be met with quite yellow, except a small dark brown dot on 

 «ach dorsal plate of the abdomen. Most Italian queens have 



