374 Mr. F. Smith on the Species and 



Apis in my catalogue; but at that time, I must admit, I had 

 very strong suspicions of several being mere climatal varieties of 

 the others, such varieties as might be reasonably expected to be 

 found in communities of the species ; but I felt that I had little 

 or nothing to guide me in arriving at a more correct enumera- 

 tion. I might have arbitrarily reduced the number, it is true ; 

 but such a mode of reduction I felt I was not warranted in 

 making ; in fact, I found that, until I became acquainted with 

 the other sexes of these supposed varieties, it was far better to 

 let them stand as species until more ample and necessary mate- 

 rial presented itself to work upon. 



The possession of an extensive series of examples of any spe- 

 cies from different localities is doubtless good material for tracing 

 out the variation in colour to which a species is liable. Apis 

 mellifica would be an instance of this kind, pregnant in interest. 

 But, at the same time, I must claim, for a series such as I have 

 indicated, that it is a means whereby we may also trace the varia- 

 tion in size to which any species is liable. Therefore, if I inves- 

 tigate Apis mellifica in this respect, and examine a large series of 

 examples from all parts of Europe, I include the Apis ligustica 

 as a mere variety ; and, as I have just observed, my series being 

 extensive and from all parts of Europe, from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, from Natal, Sierra Leone, Australia, New Zealand, from 

 St. Domingo, the Sandwich Islands, also from distant parts of 

 North America, when I compare all these together, I find no 

 really perceptible difference in size in the whole series before me. 



In the next place I examine a very extensive series of Honey- 

 Bees from different parts of Africa, and I at once recognize many 

 of Apis mellifica, all agreeing as to size, but exhibiting not only 

 the dark unicolorous Bee of northern Europe, but also an ex- 

 tremely bright variety of Apis ligustica. I next find a large 

 number of a bright-coloured species, closely resembling^, ligus- 

 tica, but' all being uniformly of a much smaller size : this is 

 Latreille's species, Apis Adansonii. Varieties of this Bee are 

 described by St. Fargeau under the names A. scutellata, A. nigri- 

 tarum, and A. Caffra. I entertain little doubt of these three 

 supposed species being varieties of A. Adansonii ; but until all 

 the sexes of this smaller Bee are obtained, and the males are 

 found to be identical with those of A. mellifica, I shall regard 

 the A. Adansonii as a good and very distinct species. 



My investigation of the genus Apis induces me to divide it 

 into seven species : I enumerate eight, but one is founded upon 

 a single example of a drone : this male is from North China, 

 whence I also obtained a worker of my own species, Apis nigro- 

 cincta ; therefore it is highly probable it may prove to be the 

 male of that species. 



