338 Dr. A. Gerstacker on the Geographical Distribution 



(=1,281,000 pounds). In Ramon de la Sagra's 'Historia 

 Fisica, &c, de la isla de Cuba (i. pp. 283 & 299) we find as the 

 average amount for the first thirty years of the present century, 

 69,476 arrobas ( = 2,084,280 pounds) of wax, and 84,044 arrobas 

 ( = 2,521,320 pounds) of honey. The quantity has probably 

 increased considerably in the last twenty years. 



Of the diffusion of the Honey-Bee in America south of the 

 Antilles and Mexico we know very little. It is found in Hon- 

 duras, according to Squier (Notes on Central America, particu- 

 larly the States of Honduras and San Salvador, 1855, p. 199), 

 but does not appear to have extended itself southwards from 

 that country, as it is not even mentioned as occurring in Costa 

 Rica by Wagner and Scherzer (Die Republik Costa Rica im 

 Central-Amerika, Leipzig, 1856), although we can hardly sup- 

 pose that Wagner would have passed it without notice had he seen 

 it there. According to oral communication from Prof. Karsten, 

 the Bee does not occur in New Granada and Venezuela; nor has 

 it been sent from those republics by Moritz. The introduction 

 of the Bee into Brazil (Minas Geraes) took place from Portugal 

 in 1845, according to Reinhardt (Brun, Bienenzeitung, 1858, 

 p. 43) ; and its great diffusion there is indirectly testified by 

 Burmeister (Reise nach Brasilien, p. 220). The absence of the 

 Bee in the States of La Plata and Chili appears from there 

 being no mention of it in the works of Burmeister and Claude 

 Gay (Reise durch die La Plata Staaten, Halle, 1861 ; Historia 

 fisica y politica de Chile, Zoologia, torn, iii.-vii.). 



On the Australian continent the Honey-Bee does not yet 

 appear to exist ; and Australia appears to be peculiarly poor in 

 honey-gathering insects, as we do not yet know even a Bombus 

 from that country. Only a small species of Trigona has lately 

 been described by Smith (Catal. Hymen. Brit. Mus. ii. p. 414). 



With regard to the distinctions existing among the hive-bees 

 of different localities, upon which Latreille and others have 

 founded specific characters, the author remarks that these con- 

 sist exclusively of differences of colour, and are so variable that 

 no dependence can be placed upon them. The colour of the 

 scutellum, upon which Latreille even based two groups of spe- 

 cies, has so little constancy that in three specimens from the 

 same locality as many gradations from light to dark may be de- 

 tected. The identity of the Italian with the northern Bee is 

 demonstrated by the perfect mutual fertility of the two forms ; 

 and the African form approaches much more closely to the 

 Italian than the latter does to the northern Bee. The author 

 describes the following forms of Bees as known to him, arranging 

 them according to the localities in which they occur : — 



