360 
In the production of wax the Hive Bee exhibits a lavishness not 
found in any of the wild bees, not excepting the species of Trigona and 
Melipona, which approach it most nearly in social economy. AS a 
result we find that the wax-secreting organs of Apis are much larger 
than in any other wax-producing bees. In Bombus they are greatly 
reduced and otherwise different in structure, resembling, however, very 
closely those obtaining in Melipona and Trigona.* In the solitary 
bees, which produce no wax, these specialized structures are entirely 
wanting. These solitary bees, no matter in what situations or of what 
material they make their cells, generally store them with honey or 
pollen, and after depositing an egg, cap the cell and leave the young 
larva to care for itself. The habits of the social Bumble-bee (Bombus) 
are but a step in advance, as the larvee are developed in a mass of 
pollen and honey, in which they form rather imperfect cells. When 
full grown each spins a silk cocoon which is thickened by a certain 
amount of wax, which is added by the adult bees. The females labor, 
and several cooperate in the same nest. In the Bottle-bees (Melipona) 
a still further step is seen, as the cells, of a rather dark, unctuous wax, 
are formed into regular combs and are somewhat imperfectly hexagonal. 
They are, however, in single horizonal tiers, separated and supported 
by intervening pillars, more like the nests of the social wasps, and the 
cell is sealed after the egg is laid upon the stored food, just as in the 
ease of solitary bees. The honey is stored in separate flask-like cells, 
and but one queen is allowed to provide eggs. 
THE SAN JOSE OR PERNICIOUS SCALE. 
(Aspidiotus perniciosus Comst. ) 
PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS. 
In the Annual Report of this Department for 1880 Prof. J. H. Com- 
stock described under the above name an insect which he had collected 
in Santa Clara County, Cal. He stated that from what he had seen of 
the species he considered it to be the most pernicious scale insect known 
in this country. He had never seen any other species so abundant as 
this was in certain orchards, and was told that it infested all the decid- 
uous fruits grown in California except the peach, the apricot, and the 
black Tartarian cherry. As aremedy he suggested the use of strong 
alkaline washes. 
* But the most interesting fact is that in the queen bee, in which they are function- 
less, they are nevertheless present, but more nearly resemble the same structures in 
Melipona. 
tRepublished, with some additions, from the Report of the Entomologist, Annual 
Report of the U. 8. Department of Agriculture for 1893, and circular No. 3, new 
series, Division of Entomology. 
