FOREIGN BEES. 281 



The Apis Indica of Fabricius, found in Pondicherry 

 and Bengal, is of a smaller size than our domestic 

 bee, if we may judge from the dimensions of the 

 cells,, which are only about three-fifths of the size of 

 the European. This is probably the small species 

 found in Ceylon. Latreille gives a figure and descrip- 

 tion of a piece of comb supposed to belong to this 

 species ; and taking into account the smallness of the 

 cells, and the consequently greater number in a comb 

 of the same area with one from our hives, he con- 

 cludes the population of the Indian hive to consist 

 of not less than 80,000 insects. Besides the Apis 

 Indica. the naturalist just mentioned notices two 

 other species met with in that region, one of which 

 is one-third longer and stronger than the European 

 race. This may be the same species with the second 

 class described by Knox, as inhabiting Ceylon. The 

 honey cells are much more capacious, and the produce 

 considerably more abundant than from the last men- 

 tioned Indian species. 



Honey-bees abound also in the whole of the 

 Eastern Archipelago ; but we have no certain account 

 of their distinctive characters. We only know that 

 they generally build on the boughs of trees, and that 

 they are never domesticated or collected into hives. 

 In fact, no attention is paid to them, farther than 

 what is requisite to obtain their wax. This, we are 

 told,* is an article of considerable importance in all 

 the eastern islands, from whence it is exported in large 

 oblong cakes to China, Bengal, and other parts of 

 * Marsden's Sumatra, p. 175. 



