356 THE INSECT WORLD. 



Bee (Apis melliftca), and the Ligurian Bee (Apis ligustica), whose 

 abdomen is tawny, with the rings bordered with black. It is this latter 

 species of which Virgil sang, and which is found in Italy and Greece. 

 It has been remarked that the Ligurian bee pierces the calices, at 

 their bases, of those flowers which are too long for it to penetrate 

 into easily, and thus gets possession of the honey, whilst the common 

 bees pass these flowers over. This observation proves that the 

 former is the more intelligent of the two races. In Egypt a bee is 

 reared called the Banded Bee (Apis fasaata). 



Ten or twelve other species of honey-bees exist in Senegal, the 

 Cape of Good -Hope, Madagascar, East Indies at Timor (Apis 

 Peronit), &c. The European bee has been acclimatised in America, 

 but it soon returns to its wild state, as indeed do all our domestic 

 animals when transported to the other hemisphere. At the Cape of 

 Good Hope the Hottentots seek greedily after the nests of wild 

 bees, a bird called the Indicator guiding them in this chase. This 

 bird is observed flitting about from tree to tree, making a little signi- 

 ficant cry. They have only then to follow this bird-informer, for it 

 will not be long in stopping before some hollow tree which contains 

 a nest of bees. The Hottentots always acknowledge its services by 

 leaving it a part of the booty. 



Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, tells us, in his work entitled " The 

 Prairie," how the bee-hunters in America discover the wild hives. 

 They place on a plank, covered with white paint still moist, a piece 

 of bread covered with sugar or honey. The bees, in plundering this 

 bread, get some of the paint on their bodies, and are then more 

 easily tracked when they return to their hives. In North America 

 they are, as it were, the harbingers of civilisation. When the 

 Indians perceive a swarm trying to establish themselves in the soli- 

 tudes of their forests, they say to one another, " The white man is 

 approaching ; he will soon be here/' True pioneers of civilisation, 

 these insects seem to announce to the forests and deserts of the New 

 World that the reign of Nature has passed away, and that now the 

 social state has begun to play its part a part that will never end. 



The bees peculiar to South America have no sting : these are the 

 Meliponas. These (Fig. 332) are more compactly formed than our 

 bees, have a more hairy body, and are smaller in size. Very 

 numerous in the virgin forests, they make their nests in the hollows 

 of trees. The wax produced by them is brown, and of an indifferent 

 quality. Under thick leaves of wax are found cakes, with hexagonal 

 cells, containing the males, females, and neuters. The cells of the 

 larvae are closed by the workers, and the larvae spin themselves a 



