38 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



February 



bee-keepers have not given up the 

 hope of being able to cultivate in 

 modern bee- hives this, the largest 

 species of the honey-bee, and of being 

 able to obtain a cross between it and 

 our ordinary bee, others contend 

 against the possibility of the fulfill- 

 ment of these hopes. We acknowl- 

 edge frankly that we belong to those 

 bee-keepers who have no more given 

 up the hope of utilizing Aph dorsata 

 for apiarian or scientific purposes than 

 have Messrs. Dathe, of Eystrup, and 

 Frank Benton, of Washington, D. C. 

 These two gentlemen are the only real 

 bee-masters who have observed, studied 

 and handled the East India bee in its 

 native land. When Benton returned 

 from his East India journey we re- 

 ceived from him about a dozen speci- 

 mens of Apis dorsata, half of them 

 workers and the others drones, but no 

 queen. At the first glance we saw 

 that the insects sent to us were honey- 

 bees, which differed from our bees 

 only in size and color. A difference 

 — such as, for example, is claimed by 

 Vogel between these two species of 

 bees — like that between a wasp and a 

 honey-bee, exists no more than be- 

 tween a pony and a large work-horse, 

 or a Cochin China fowl and an ordi- 

 nary native fowl. Upon viewing these 

 two species of animals anyone says at 

 once : those are horses and hens. So 

 also in our case : those are bees, and 

 not bees and wasps. 



''The workers of the East India 

 honey-bee are, as already remarked, 

 exactly like our workers as regards 

 the form of their bodies only they are 

 about as large as good-sized, well-de- 

 veloped virgin queens from an after- 

 swarm. Also as regards the markings 

 of Apis dorsata there is, aside from the 



changing, azure-blue color of the 

 wings, no striking difference between 

 a pure Egyptian or a finely marked 

 Italian on the one hand, and the East 

 India bee on the other. And now as 

 to the drones of the latter. They have 

 not only the form of body which is so 

 characteristic of the drones of our 

 native bees, but also exactly the size 

 of body, as well as of head, thorax, 

 abdomen, wings, and legs of large 

 native drones. The somewhat differ- 

 ent coloration counts as nothing at all. 

 Why, under such conditions, should a 

 desired mating of the East India bee 

 with the native not take place just as 

 well as between a pony and a larger 

 horse, between a Cochin China fowl 

 and our common fowl — especially 

 when we consider further that Apis 

 dorsata produces exactly such wax and 

 in the same manner as our Apis rnelli- 

 fiea, and that her honey is of the same 

 quality as that of tlie latter ? The 

 style and manner in which the East 

 India bee constructs her combs — in a 

 single, wheel-shaped disc attached to 

 the under side of a branch or of any 

 overhanging rock, that she leaves her 

 combs and migrates further when for- 

 age fails — these peculiarities, which 

 are determined by surrounding condi- 

 tions, can hardly stand in the way of 

 their crossing. All this, as well as 

 their experiences in general with ^pis 

 dorsata, have by no means discouraged 

 the two gentlemen, Benton and Dathe, 

 in considering further experiments 

 with the East" India bee — indeed, to 

 undertake these experiments in case 

 opportunity for such should occur. 



" Frank Benton in an article on 

 'Apis dorsata or the Giant Bee of 

 India ' recently published by him, 

 says, after having answered certain 



