TüKUTA : Studies on i he Honi:y Bee, \vi rii Special Reference to hie Japanese Honi;v Bee, j; 



the oi'tlinaiy position of the bocly out of notice of an obser\-ei", especially in 

 the case of specimens uhich are shrinked. Bingham (1897) notes on nidka simply: 

 "The scutelkim and basal five segments of the abdomen testaceous yellow" ; 

 Benton (1896) says, on the other hand, "The abdomen is yellow underneath. 

 Above it presents a ringet! appearance, the anterior part cf each segment being 

 orange yellow, while the posterior part shows bands of brown of greater or less 

 width and covered with whitish-brown hairs; tip black." The observation of 

 the last named author is accordingly in this respect in accordance with the 

 results of the present investigation. 



The markings on the dorsal plates just referred to are the constant occurence 

 to all the worker bees, though there are natiirall_\- some di\'ergencies in shading 

 of color. Tile second plate is exxcpted in its being fiirr.'.' lied with a striking 

 brownish mark of \'ar\'ing shape and area which occupies the larger or smaller 

 part of the black area (see k. Fig. 2), but is entirely lost not unfrequently. 

 There are rarely colonies, the whole members of which lack the mark in question. 



Thirtlh-, the legs are black, with a brown oblique streak on the outside 

 of the middle portion of the tibia of hind legs. The black pigment grows more 

 scanty towards the proximal joints, especially on their inner side, being caused 

 by lacking the pigment. The coxa, trochanter and femur of the legs, especially 

 these of the hind legs, look on this account more or less translucent and are 

 turned brownish and opaque, \\hen the bees are dead and tlried. The above men- 

 tioned streak as well as the brown shading just referred to are not constant; some 

 individuals ha\-e legs lacking entirely the .streak and brown areas, the whole 

 body being blackened. 



The following table (Table I) is intended to show the number of bees with 

 the markings from several localities of this coui^try a» well as those from Corea 

 and China. In some examples the brown markings are extremely distinct 

 because the fundamental black color is lighter, while in another lot they are 

 diffused owing to the latter which is intensified; there are of course individuals 

 standing in this respect in the midway between the two lots, ranging to both 

 the extremities. The variation is to some extent due to the geographical 

 position of the localities. So far as proved, the bees from the .southern Iccalities 

 such as Fukuoka and Kumamoto are lighter in color, as compared with those 



