THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 47 



They appear among the Cyprian and Syrian bees 

 more frequently than among the Italians. 



RACES OF DOMESTIC BEES 



Several races of the honey bee have been de- 

 veloped in different countries. Some of these have 

 been imported into the United States, and many 

 experiments have been made to determine their 

 relative values. 



There were no native honey bees in North America 

 north of Mexico, and the black or German bees 

 were the first to be brought to this country by the 

 pioneers. The wild bees which stock the woods of 

 our country to-day are chiefly black bees, the descend- 

 ants of swarms which have escaped from apiaries. 

 For many years the black or German race was the 

 only kind in general use here. Within recent years 

 the eastern races of bees, Cyprians, Holy-Lands, or 

 Syrians, and also the Egyptians and Carniolans and 

 Italians have been introduced. Of all these, only the 

 Italians have come into universal favour. 



The Italians are the classic bees which were dis- 

 cussed by Aristotle, and sung about by Virgil, who 

 describes their bodies as "shining like drops of 

 sparkling gold." The Italian worker has five yellow 

 bands that mark the front portions of the five seg- 

 ments of the abdomen which lie next to the thorax; 

 the two posterior bands are made by yellow hairs 

 and are therefore likely to disappear as the bee gets 

 old and bald. But the three front ones are made 

 not only by yellow hairs, but also by the yellowish 



