346 Dr. A. Gerstacker on the Honey-Bee. 



which we have in England ; they build in hollow trees, into 

 which the people blow, and from which they take honey and 

 wax, without any dread of being stung." Here he seems to 

 refer to the Apis indica, which he erroneously identifies with the 

 European Bee. 



The third East-Indian species, incorrectly regarded by La- 

 treille as Apis indica, Fab., but which, from a comparison with 

 the original specimens of Fabricius, is the Anthophora florea of 

 that entomologist (Ent. Syst. ii. p. 341. 118), and must there- 

 fore be called Apis florea, Fab., is the smallest of all known 

 species, the workers measuring scarcely more than 3| lines. 

 The author has workers from Tranquebar, Java, and Poona, 

 and workers and drones from Ceylon. This species seems to 

 vary less than the others, although young workers may be re- 

 cognized by the light colour of the abdomen and the rusty-red 

 tint of the legs, scapes, and clypeus. The coloration, in fully 

 developed specimens, is as follows : — Head, including upper lip 

 and antennae, black, with only the frontal tubercles rusty red ; 

 thorax and legs likewise black, and, like the head, clothed with 

 white hairs. Abdomen generally with the first two segments 

 tile-red, the rest black, and with snow-white hair at the base ; 

 rarely the third segment shows some red, and still more rarely 

 the second some black. The wings are hyaline, with rusty- 

 yellow veins. The drones which are believed to belong to these 

 workers (Apis lobata, Smith, Catal. Apidse, p. 416. 10) are con- 

 siderably larger than the workers, namely, 4| lines long. They 

 have the body black ; thorax and two basal segments of the 

 abdomen clothed with yellowish-grey hairs; the apex of the 

 abdomen clothed with black hair ; the third and fourth segments 

 naked, shining. Structural characters distinguishing these 

 drones from those of the European species are as follow: — 



1. The head is more convex, and the eyes therefore larger; 



2. The antennae are very short, the flagellum scarcely double 

 the length of the scape ; 3. The metatarsus of the posterior legs 

 is very peculiarly forked ; the outer branch of this fork is the 

 thicker, inflated on the outside, hairy within, and bears at its 

 apex the following tarsal joints ; the inner one has somewhat the 

 form and position of a thumb, and is only two-thirds the length 

 of the outer. A comb unquestionably belonging to this species 

 has been described and figured by Latreille (Annales du Mus. 

 iv. p. 386, pi. 69, and Recueil d'Obs. de Zool. p. 302, pi. 21). In 

 its substance it agrees precisely with that of Apis mellifica ; its 

 cells are hexagonal, applied to each other back to back, and with 

 their bases alternating and interlocking. The difference in the 

 size of the cells is very great : 33f cells of A. florea occupy the 

 same space as 18| of A. mellifica. The drone-cells found with 



