274- FOREIGN BEES. 



species that is found in the Grecian Archipelago. 

 In its physical characters it nearly resembles our 

 own hive-bee; the difference consists in the two 

 first rings of the abdomen, (except at their posterior 

 edge) and the base of the third, being of a pale red- 

 dish colour, instead of a deep brown. 



The continent of Africa, in all its widely extended 

 regions, seems well stocked with bees, particularly 

 towards the sea-coast. In lower Egypt their cultiva- 

 tion forms the employment of many of the poorer 

 classes during a great part of the year. During the 

 inundation of the Nile, the cultivators, unable to find 

 pasturage for their bee- stocks in the lower province* 

 transport them in boats to upper Egypt, resting 

 occasionally by the way, to allow the industrious in- 

 sects an opportunity to forage and thus they reap 

 a double harvest. The insect itself, supposed to be 

 the A. Fasciata of Latreille, bears a considerable re- 

 semblance to that cultivated in Greece. On the 

 western coast, where it is intersected by the Senegal, 

 separated as this region is from the more northerly 

 parts of Africa by mountains and deserts which form 

 an insuperable barrier to the passage of the inferior 

 classes of animals, we find what we are assured is 

 another species of bees, viz., A. Adansonii. It has, 

 however, a very near resemblance to A. Ligustica ; 

 its difference being in the two first rings of the ab- 

 domen, and the anterior half of the third, which are 

 of a pale chestnut colour. In the neighbourhood of 

 the Gambia, a species of small black bees is found in 

 the woods in all likelihood the same with those 



