524 



INSECTS ABROAD. 



Passing by the common Hive Bee, we take an insect which 

 according to Mr. Bates, is in tropical America the represen- 

 tative of our well-known Hive Bee. As Mr. Gorse and Mr. 

 Bates have both given public descriptions of the Melipona 

 and its habits, I cannot do better than allow them to speak 

 for themselves. 



In his work on Jamaican Natural History, the former author 

 writes as follows : — 



" I was exceedingly interested this afternoon by the sight of 

 two hives of indigenous Bees, shown to me by Mr. Garriques, at 

 Shelton Pen, on the banks of the Eio Cobre. The one hive, in 

 the hollow of a calabash tree, had an entrance about half an inch 



Fin. 287. — Melipona fesciculata. 

 (Brown.) 



wide at midway up the trunk, the cavity being supposed to 

 descend some four feet down. The other was in a cordia cherry 

 tree, and was laid bare by a considerable portion of the tree 

 being cut away. The cutting just disclosed the uppermost of 

 the broad cells, but nothing of the sacklets that contained the 

 honey. I take our Bees to be similar to, if not the same with, 

 the Bee of Mexico, a Melipona or Trigona, called by the 

 Spaniards Angclitos (i.e. little angels), from having no stings. 

 They settled upon us, and we handled them ; but they did no 

 injury to us, though it was perceptible that they were excited, 

 for they pursued the hand, and clustered on it, when portions of 

 the brood cells were taken up. 



