466 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



THE STINGLESS BEES OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 



An Interesting Description ; their Habits, their Hon= 



ey, and their Combs ; Sealed Brood Eaten 



by the Natives as a Delicacy. 



BY H. N. CROSS, M. D. 



It is some years since I was in Central 

 America, but I suppose the bees there have 

 not changed their habits to any great ex- 

 tent. My first experience with them was 

 while spending- a vacation on the " Finca 

 Playa Grande," in Guatemala, where I 

 was annoyed almost beyond endurance by 

 the smallest variety alighting on my hands, 

 neck, and face, drinking up the moisture of 

 perspiration. The temperature there near 

 the coast in December is about 105 to 110, 

 often going away up, even in the shade of 

 the forests, and perspiration is quite ac- 

 tive. 



These bees are smaller than house-flies, 

 and continually buzzed about us in clouds. 

 They have no stings, have a greenish ap- 

 pearance, but, when closely examined, they 

 showed spots of reddish brown on the abdo- 

 men, with greenish down on the thorax. 

 Their tongues. I remember distinctly, were 

 very long in proportion to the insect — some- 

 what similar to the bumble-bee. 



They make their nests in crevices in dead 

 wood, rocks, bark, or dirt, but never rear 

 large colonies, being content with an un- 

 limited amount of swarming. In some lo- 

 calities these little colonies are exceeding- 

 ly numerous, the little bits of comb in the 

 clefts of trees being plainly seen if looked 

 for, the bees being in countless millions. 

 Their comb is in little thin sheets, leaf- 

 shaped, probably i\ inch in thickness, very 

 delicate, and beautiful to look upon. Hon- 

 ey is stored in this in quantities only suffi- 

 cient for their immediate needs, as they 

 seem to think the continuous summer a 

 guarantee that no surplus is necessary. 



The so-called "wild bee" of Central 

 America is somewhat larger than a com- 

 mon house-fly, perhaps half the size of our 

 honey-bees. They are brownish, with gold- 

 en markings in stripes across the abdomen; 

 have no stings, and enjoy a peculiar squat- 

 ty look as if their legs were too short for 

 them. When chopping at a bee-tree they 

 go almost frantic, flying into the chopper's 

 mouth, ears, e3'es, and nose, into all open- 

 ings of his clothing (which is exceedingly 

 scanty), making it almost impossible to 

 work. And, by the way, these " bee-trees" 

 are almost always down already, as in the 

 clearings for cultivation it takes two or 

 three years to get rid of the wood. In the 

 forests, if there are any nests they are in- 

 variably so high up that nobody ever finds 

 them. 



These nests are always divided into two 

 apartments— one for brood and one for sur- 

 plus. The brood is in comb perhaps '^ in. 

 thick, and is built from the sides of the hol- 

 low, springing out, layer after layer, till 

 the cavity is filled from the middle to the 



bottom. These cavities are never larger 

 than would hold a quart, and are general- 

 ly spindle-shaped, as though the bees had 

 done a great deal of the work themselves, 

 and had made it of a standard design. 



The upper half of the cavity is filled with 

 surplus, and here is where the most pecul- 

 iar part of their habits occurs. Instead of 

 being stored in comb, the honej^ is put in 

 large wax globules or capsules, of a size 

 equal to the average pecan-nut, and about 

 the same shape. The walls of these cap- 

 sules are about as thick as ordinary card- 

 board. If the tree is opened nicely, these 

 globules look about like a heap of nuts or 

 marbles, some of creamy, others of brownish 

 color, and all shades between. The bees 

 do not seem to fill the interstices between 

 the globules with honey, using them for 

 passageways when putting in and taking 

 out the hone}'. 



I never saw any honey lighter in color 

 than molasses (New Orleans type), and it 

 has a rank taste as if a good deal of pollen 

 had been mixed in with it. 



The natives do not seem to care much for 

 the honey, but cut out combs of brood and 

 bite into them as a small boy would into a 

 slice of bread and jam. To see them with 

 the mashed-brood juices running down from 

 the corners of their mouths is not a pleas- 

 ant sight. 



There are several other sizes of honey- 

 gathering insects in our tropical countries, 

 but the above were the only ones I had the 

 pleasure of examining closely. Probably 

 the last described could be "domesticat- 

 ed," and encouraged to build their nests in 

 boxes; but it is very doubtful whether they 

 would store their surplus in comb as our 

 bees do. 



I am sorry I could not send you photo- 

 graphs of the above; but at the time I was 

 there I had no camera, so the description 

 will have to do. However, the black and 

 gold bumble-bees here do verj' curious work 

 in old wood, and I can photograph some of 

 it if you wish. 



Livermore, Cal., Apr. 14. 



[Some years ago we obtained a colony of 

 stingless bees from the South. Thej' pro- 

 duced globules of honey such as are here 

 described, that were verj^ beautiful. If it 

 were possible to bring these bees under do- 

 mestication in the North to such an extent 

 that the}' would pile up a lot of these glob- 

 ules of beautiful honey, I imagine we might 

 sell such globules for a cent apiece, thus 

 getting an enormous price per pound for the 

 honey. Perhaps our friends in Texas and 

 other parts of the South, where honey is 

 light-colored and of good quality, could 

 manage to bring these bees under cultiva- 

 tion; then if they can get some of these 

 beautiful mouthfuls of honey I will see that 

 they get a good market price for them. If 

 we advertise them as stingless-bee honey, 

 and show them up as so many beautiful 

 chunks of confectionery, I will guarantee 

 that they will sell.— Ed.] 



