1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



487 



through foundation, noxt the wood, in frames 

 and soctions. Tho uso of the new drawn foun- 

 dation will make the adulteration of comb 

 honey hardlv any ea-sier than in the past. It is 

 always possible for unscrupulous persons to 

 get the bees to fill their combs with syrup, 

 whether drawn comb, ordinary foundation, or 

 no starter at all be given. 



I am pleased to see in Gleanings that you 

 are taking practical steps to sift the Apis ilor- 

 sota mystery, and wish you every success. As, 

 perhaps, you know, I took a voyage to India 

 last winter for health, and spent a month there 

 taking specimens and getting information 

 about the various types of bees to be found in 

 the country, especially of the genus Apis. I 

 set out with the firm belief that any of the 

 Indian honey-bees, to be of any value to us, in 

 our climate at least, should come from the 

 mountains and not from the plains; and after 

 my month's tour I felt more than ever con- 

 vinced of this. Now, A. dorsata is essentially 

 a plain bee, though I did meet with a deserted 

 comb at 2(XX) ft. elevation on the southern slopes 

 of the Himalayas: and I am almost afraid that 

 you will make nothing of it— at least in honey- 

 producing. If properly managed in the South- 

 ern States it might give wax, but I doubt if 

 you could make Weed foundation of quality 

 as at present with dorsata wax. I met with 

 A. dorsata fairly commonly in a ramble taken 

 at Siligari at the foot of the Himalayas. The 

 sky was cloudless, the air still, and the ther- 

 mometer stood at 7,5° in the shade Cthis in 

 January), but A. dorsata did not see fit to ap- 

 pear for more than three hours in the day; 

 viz., from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 



My heart sank at first sight of a dorsata 

 worker on the wing. With its heavy, dusky 

 wings it emits a low-pitched hum, indicating 

 the slowness of vibration. It goes from flower 

 to flower in a lazy, unsystematic way, frequent- 

 ly pausing for rest on a prominent leaf, forci- 

 bly calling to mind Cheshire's interesting 

 Illustrations of the comparative feebleness of 

 large creatures. To say that A. dorsata bears 

 the same similarity in behavior and appear- 

 ance to an ordinary honey-bee that a hornet 

 does to a wasp would give a very good idea to 

 an observant Englishman of the "nature of 

 the beast." 



I made a dissection of two of A. dorsata on 

 my return, and the following figures may be of 

 interest to you. I have had to suspend all this 

 kind of work for the present until the winter. 



L'gtli of Approx. I'g-th of 

 body. tongues (ligula). 

 A. dorsata (fTonx Si\iga,rl}15 m. m. 4 m. m. 



A. rnclUfica (England) 12..5 m. m. 3.6 m. m. 



A. florca iC-dlcuitii) 7.8 rn. m. 1 m. m. 



Bomhu-i hoHorinn 

 (England), worker 1.5 m. m. 9 m. m. 



I brought a case of specimens of wild bees 

 back, many of them of exceedingly interesting 

 structure, which I have not time to enter into 



here. I have a largo collection of wild bees 

 froui many parts of the world. If you know of 

 any one in the Northern States who takes an 

 interest in these things would it be too much 

 to ask you, when communicating with him, to 

 give him my name and address, as I should be 

 pleased to make exchanges? I have a cor- 

 respondent In New Mexico, and several in 

 Canada, but none at present in the Northern 

 States. 

 Ripple Court, England, June 8. 



[This is very interesting and valuable, espe- 

 cially the comparative measurements of Avis 

 dorsata and other bees. It would appear from 

 the foregoing that their tongues are but little 

 longer than those of the common bees, while 

 the tongue of the bumble-bee is more than 

 twice as long as that of the so-called giant 

 bees. The claim has been made that these 

 bees would be especially valuable in this coun- 

 try, for the reason that they could get honey 

 from red clover and other flora having deep 

 flowerets; that they would be able to do for us 

 in the way of fertilization what the bumble-bee 

 does, and more. If the comparative measure- 

 ments of bees' tongues are correct the claim is 

 rather flimsy. We should be glad to hear from 

 Mr. Sladin further on the subject. 



After the article above was in type, the fol- 

 lowing, from our old friend and correspondent, 

 A. Bunker, the one who has written in years 

 gone by, on the subject of Apis dorsata, and 

 who has been living right in their native cli- 

 mate for a good many years, is especially op- 

 portune and valuable: 



My dear Friend and Bro. Root: — Once more, 

 after four years' absence on the Burman field 

 of missions, I am permitted to greet my family. 

 I find a large place empty by the death of my 

 boy while away. God has, however, given me 

 many spiritual children to make me glad. We 

 baptized 4.57 converts during the last two years; 

 added over 1600 to the attendance at our Sun- 

 day-school, and organized five churches during 

 the last year. Praise the Holy Spirit, who gives 

 the increase. 



I see considerable speculation about Apis 

 dorsata in your journal. Having studied that 

 bee in its native habitat I am afraid it can 

 not be domesticated more than it has been. It 

 is a migratory bee. During the dry season it 

 travels south, and takes up its home, usually in 

 the same place, from year to year, among great 

 flowering trees. As the rains come on, it leaves 

 for the North, and I have found its home in 

 high mountainous tracts, where the natives 

 plant stakes in the side of a hill horizontally, 

 digging a ditch under them, and leaning a few 

 boughs against the stake for protection. 



The amount of honey gathered by this bee 

 always seemed to me to be small when com- 

 pared with that gathered by other bees, and 

 taking into consideration the s'ze and numbers 

 of the bees. It is possible their habits can be 

 changed, but I doubt it. If any one wants to 

 study them for himself tell such a person to go 

 to Tongoo, Burma; get a camping-out kit, and 

 go back into the forest 20 miles to the east of 



