The American Apiculturist 



§. Ifoitnial b^bohb to ^mntifit ani) |Pradi;raI §cilu£ptng. 



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Published Monthly. S. M. Locke & Co., Publishers & Prop'rs. 



VOL. III. 



WENHAM, MASS., JULY 15, li 



No. 7. 



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THE BEES OF INDIA. 



By a. Bunker. 



I HAVE been promising myself the 

 pleasure of writing to you for some 

 time, but the extreme heat and my 

 duties have prevented till now. 



I spent the month of April in the 

 jungle studying bees. It was my va- 

 cation. I camped on the top of a 

 high mountain amidst trees of great 

 size, which afforded a dense shade. 

 Although the thermometer often 

 showed 86°, yet we found this place 

 a great relief from the heat of the 

 plains. 



Here the bees are very numer- 

 ous. The Apis dorsata is found 

 in two varieties; the A. Indica in 

 13 



three ; the A. flora in two ; and what 

 I suppose to be the "Melipona" of 

 South America, in six or more varie- 

 ties. 



At first dawn the bees pour forth 

 from their homes, and their mighty 

 hum fills the air. Trees up to three 

 and four feet in diameter, with wide 

 spreading tops full of bloom, and 

 others covered with great creepers, a 

 foot in diameter, with a bloom so fra- 

 grant, that its sweetness reaches to a 

 long distance about, tempt the bees 

 to their feasts of honey. 



One would suppose, that under the 

 circumstances, the bees would gather 

 great quantities of honey, but it is 

 seldom the case, even with A. Indica, 

 that any considerable quantity of 

 honey is collected, owing in part, I 

 suspect to their many enemies, which 

 tend to break them up into many 

 swarms, and these being small are 

 easily destroyed, or caused to abscond 

 from nest after nest. For instance, 

 the moth is very destructive, and when 

 once they attack a swarm, the victory 

 is soon won by one side or the other, 

 mainly on the side of the moth I 

 think. I captured a fine large swarm 

 of yellow A. I, and on transferring 

 them, found a few moth worms which 

 I destroyed. In a few days the whole 

 swarm absconded, and on examina- 

 tion I found the combs riddled by 

 moths, that is, all that were not torn 

 (145) 



