ToKiTA : SxiDiiis O.N TiiK HoNEV BiiE, WITH Sl'EclAi. ReieriincI'; To THE JaianivSE Honi;v Bee. 1 Q 



retire into the inside of the box instead oi'" risking- the struggle and exterminate 

 those fellons of the varacious enem\', whicli dare to intrude tliereinto. It 

 occurs not unfrequcntly that the cell wall of the old combs is L;na\\'n down 

 by themseh'cs. They abandon their hi\ e at trifle circumstance unfa\orable for 

 them; on the other hand, they are skillful in building the nest, each cell of 

 which is in mean 4.65 mm in diamenter and 5 3Ö mm in depth for the drones, 

 being the latter about equal to that of the worker cell of A. vtcUifica. They 

 are often seen bearing so thick wax-scales, more than I mm in thickness in their 

 wax-pockets. The worker bees do not intend to raise the queen either from 

 fertilized egg or from worker Iar\-a and become fertile soon, when the latter 

 is lo.st from their hi\e. It is, therefore, bej-ond doubt that a nest in which the 

 queen is once lost, can ne\er be maintained further, .so that there happens 

 notiiing else than decomposition of the colony. 



As further peculialities of the Japanese bees the forward direction of their 

 lieads at the entrance of the box, in which they are fanning, and the parts 

 of the latter they rest at fanning are to be mentioned ; the arrangement of 

 the eggs along the midrib of the comb, in which they are deposited, is also 

 a striking contrast to that in ,-/ vidlifica. Tlie circlar pore at the front wall 

 of the drone-cocoon is finall}- as one of the striking characteriostic of our tribe 

 of bee. 



All these prominent biological facts gathered from the facts described prove 

 that our bees .stand inferior to A. mcllifica in the zoological scale and can 

 accordingly be not taken together with, but arc to be distinguished from the 

 latter. It is, furthermore, reported and has been experienced hy myself that 

 crossing of our male and female with those of A. inelHfica is unsuccessful. 



In connection with the anatomical characteriostics, among which the con- 

 struction of the male copulatory organ is worth of notice, the biological date 

 just referred to afford us the ground which is .strong enough to put the Japanese 

 bees on it against A. incllifica. On the other hand, our native bees show a 

 .series of characteristics in common with Apis itulica, as pointed out by recent 

 obser\-ers such as Kosche\nikow (1903), \-. Buttel-Reepen (1906) and others. 

 P'riese (1920, 1922. 1923) puts indica among A. mdlifica, but only bccau.se his 

 view advanced in order to condense the conception of the .species. The results 



