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Yir. Xofcs on tJic 'iirsts of Bees of the genv.s Trigona. By 

 Charles Owen Waterhouse, F.E.S. 



[Reiid March -Itb, 19u3.] 



Plate VL 



From time to time portions of the resinous masses formed 

 bv species of Tri'iona have been received by our National 

 Museum, and I believe have been exhibited at meetings 

 of this Society : but so far as I know no complete nest has 

 ever been shown. When my friend Mr. Ridley, of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Singapore, was last in England, I 

 asked him to endeavour to procure me one. This is 

 attended with some difficulty, as the nests are generaUy 

 built in hollow trees away in the forest, and usually at a 

 considerable height from the ground. Soon after his 

 return to Singapore, Mr. Ridley was fortunate enough to 

 see a large nest of T. collina from Malacca being exhibited 

 at an Agrictdtural Show, and he very kindly purchased it 

 and sent it home to me. The bees were still alive in it 

 when it arrived. As soon as they ceased to come out, I 

 had the great mass of resin, which weighed 40 lbs., sawn 

 in half. Roughly speaking the nest is 24 inches long, 

 and 9 inches wide. The resinous parts, about 8 inches at 

 the top, and nearly the same at the bottom, have numerous 

 irregular oalleries and cavities. Some of these cavities 

 are empty, but many of them are filled with pollen. This 

 was soft and spongy when the nest arrived ; now it is 

 very hard, but the appearance is the same. The central 

 part of the block is occupied by what one may call the 

 nest proper. This is about 7 inches by 6. It consists of 

 innumerable galleries and chambers which are quite 

 irregular, separated by yellowish waxy partitions that are 

 not thicker than stout paper. In these partitions are 

 seen the oval cells containing immattire bees. 



The cells are 8 millimetres long, and about 4j broad. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1908.— PART L (aPRIL) 



