82 



aLtJAJ^lNGS IN BEE CtlLTUItE. 



t^EB. 



the air they fly well. One of this age, kept out ot 

 the hive half an hour, eagerly licked up some 

 thin honey. 



August 2".— 1 gave some (hones just hatched in a 

 good colony, to a strong nucleus. 



August 30.— At 3 p. M., with the thermometer in- 

 dicating 80°, four drones took wing. One coming 

 jpst outside, discharged a whitish, crcara-like mass, 

 quite unlike the fa-ces of the common bee, which 

 was eagerly licked up by the workers! Another, 

 caught before it took wing, discharged a clot of 

 somewhat yellower, color. Evidently drones can 

 not retain their ffpccs as long as workers. Some 

 t)rovision would therefore seem to be needed against 

 a colony taking harm, when the cleansing flight of 

 the drones is unreasonably delayed. As no drone 

 was gone more than five minutes, none had left to 

 mate. 



September 1 and 2.— The weather was unfavorable, 

 and a few drones only took wing, but not to mate. 

 . September 3.— The temperature was 76° at 3 p. m., 

 and the weather fair, with a gentle breeze. Of the 

 many drones that flew, some returned in less than 

 five. minutes, most in ten minutes, and a few in 

 fifteen minutes. T think that not one sought 

 to mate, for a drone, unsuccessful in finding a 

 queen, will not come home until his honey-sac 

 is nearly empty— which usually happens in about 

 half an hour. 



From all the observations made at this time, I 

 conclude that drones can not be relied upon for 

 sexual duty until they are at least eight days old, 

 and that most of them are not serviceable quite so 

 young. The drone having no special oflice inside 

 the hive, it is wisel3' ordered that it should seek to 

 mate at about half t he age a worker seeks for out- 

 side duties. 



. September 15.— The temperature was 60° to 76°, 

 and the weather was clovidless. At 1 p. m., drones 

 were in full flight. I i)ut a Jones perforated-zinc 

 guard on that strong nuclues, to be able more easily 

 to catch the returning drones. The most of them 

 evidently flew to, mate; the last two were gone 51 

 minutes. I caught them all; they filled two large 

 queen-cages. After most of them had been con- 

 fined over half an hour, 1 placed the open cages 

 more than a foot from the liive-entrance. To my 

 surprise, many -of them, unable to take wing, 

 crawled to "the flight-hole," a truly woe-begone set 

 of beggars, impatient— nay, importunate, to be fed; 

 and the workers were all eagerness to supply their 

 wants! One, too far gone to crawl or even to beg, 

 on- having. his proboscis wetted with thin syrup, 

 though at first barely able to take it, soon grew 

 strong enough to fly. From numerous experi- 

 ments made at this time, it seems that, if drones 

 are ket)t from feeding on!.vhalf an hour after re- 

 turning from a wedding- trip, they become too weak 

 to fly. 



Catching, on the same day, some drones which 

 were being worried by a strong colony, their honey- 

 sacs were found to be well filled. It is easy to see 

 how soon a drone must succumb, if the bees merely 

 prevent it from eating. J believe that more perish 

 in this way thau by any actual violence done them 

 by the workers. 



I hope to be able to continue this subject in a 

 future number. Rev. L. L. Langstroth. 



Dayton, 0.,Jan. 10, 1888. 



Friend L.. we are very glad indeed to find 

 thai you are able to ajjpear among us once 



more. Some years ago I made quite a good 

 many experiments witli drones; and my 

 conclusions were mainly just about as yours 

 are. They are pooi' helpless creatures, not 

 able to live even -4 hours without the help of 

 the worker-bees. In fact. I am inclined to 

 think that a drone would starve to death, even 

 when placed right on a head of clover, al- 

 though the clover were yielding honey at its 

 best. A small feed of iresh honey will re- 

 vive a feeble and fainting drone in an amaz- 

 ingly short space of time. The children often 

 discover this when they have drones to play 

 with. Unless they are fed pretty often, or 

 returned to the hive, they are very soon " no 

 good." 



XYLOCOPA, OK CARPENTER BEES. 



PROF. COOK TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT THESE 

 (^UHIOUS INSECTS. 



It. W. A. HEMPHILL, Elsberry, Mo., sends 

 what he calls " a hive of bumble-bees of the 

 genus Bnmhus." He says: "This respecta- 

 ble little colony, composed of si.v bees, has 

 been hibernating in this small hole, bored 

 by the bees, in a board nailed to one of my out- 

 buildings thus much of the winter. They have no 

 stores, and without doubt havf! been quietlj' sleep- 

 ing since winter commenced. When brought into a 

 warm room they became lively." 



These are not bumble-bees, as Mr. H. supposed; 

 but the resemblance is so close that it is not strange 

 that he thought they were. These belong to the ge- 

 nus Xylocopa and not Bombus. From their boring 

 habits they are called " carpenter bees." I describe 

 their habits briefly in my Manual. They are the 

 largest of bees, and less hairy than are bumble- 

 bees. The cells of their wings are quite difterent 

 from the same in bumble-bees. These are Simply 

 males and females, while bumble-bees are like our 

 hive-bees— males, (jueens, and workers. These bore 

 holes in wood for their nests, while bumble-bees 

 build their cells in some hole in the earth, under a 

 boiird or clod— possibly in a deserted mouse-nest. 

 Bumble-bees have the hind leg with pollen-baskets, 

 pollen-combs, and wax-jaws, like our honey-bees, 

 while xylocopa has none of these. The jaws of 

 bombus are divided bj' grooves into three cusps, so 

 they are trilobed, while the jaws of xylocopa have 

 two cusps or are bilobed. These are the most ob- 

 vious differences, and will enable any one to distin- 

 guish these bees, the one from the other. 



These bees have been in a warm room since they 

 arrived this morning; and although they closely fill 

 the tunnel, or hole, in the block, which is as neat 

 and smooth as if bored with a bit, thej- are hum- 

 ming quite merrily. This is interesting. Landois 

 showed, some years ago, bj' most admirable experi- 

 ments, that bees and some other insects make 

 noises in three ways: Vibrations of the wings- 

 buzzing; vibration of the abdominal segments; and 

 b.v their thoracic spiracles, the breathing-mouths, 

 which are situated just back of the base of the 

 wings. This last is a true voice, and is the hum. 

 Landois found that bumble-bees whose wings have 

 been cut or glued would still hum; hence we see 

 why these carpenter bees in the small bore, or the 

 bumble-bee held in a close flower, will still hum. 



A. J. Cook. 

 Agricultural College, Mich., Jan., 1888. 



