Cuap. VIII. MELIPONA BEES. 201 
little species (undescribed), not more than two lines long, builds a neat 
tubular gallery of clay, kneaded with some viscid substance, outside 
the entrance to its hive, besides blocking up the crevice in the tree 
within which it is situated. The mouth of the tube is trumpet-shaped, 
and at the entrance a number of the pigmy bees are always stationed, 
apparently acting as sentinels. 
It is remarkable that none of the American bees have attained that 
high degree of architectural skill in the construction of their comb 
which is shown by the European hive bee. The wax cells of the 
Melipone are generally oblong, showing only an approximation to the 
hexagonal shape in places where several of them are built in contact. 
It would appear that the Old World has produced in bees, as well as 
in other families of animals, far more advanced forms than the tropics 
of the New World. 
A hive of the Melipona fasciculata, which I saw opened, contained 
about two quarts of pleasantly-tasted liquid honey. The bees, as already 
remarked, have no sting, but they bite furiously when their colonies are 
disturbed. The Indian who plundered the hive was completely covered 
by them; they took a particular fancy to the hair of his head, and 
fastened on it by hundreds. I found forty-five species of these bees in 
different parts of the country; the largest was half an inch in length ; 
the smallest were extremely minute, some kinds being not more than 
one-twelfth of an inch in size. These tiny fellows are often very 
troublesome in the woods, on account of their familiarity ; they settle 
on one’s face and hands, and, in crawling about, get into the eyes and 
mouth, or up the nostrils. 
The broad expansion of the hind shanks of bees is applied in some 
species to other uses besides the conveyance of clay and pollen. The 
female of the handsome golden and black Euglossa Surinamensis has 
this palette of very large size. This species builds its solitary nest also 
in crevices of walls or trees ; but it closes up the chink with fragments 
of dried leaves and sticks, cemented together, instead of clay. It visits 
the cajti trees, and gathers with its hind legs a small quantity of the gum 
which exudes from their trunks. To this it adds the other materials 
required from the neighbouring bushes, and when laden flies off to its 
nest. 
Whilst on the subject of bees, I may mention that the neighbourhoods 
of Santarem and Villa Nova yielded me about one hundred and forty 
species. The genera are for the most part different from those in- 
habiting Europe. A very large number make their cells in hollow 
twigs and branches. As in our own country, the industrious nest- 
building kinds are attended by other species which do not work or 
store up food for their progeny, but deposit their ova in the cells of 
their comrades. Some of these, it is well known, counterfeit the dress 
and general figure of their victims. ‘To all appearance this similarity 
of shape and colours between the parasite and its victim is given for the 
purpose of deceiving the poor hard-working bee, which would otherwise 
revenge itself by slaying its plunderers. Some parasitic bees, however, 
have no resemblance to the species they impose upon ; probably they 
