280 Dr. A. Gerstacker on the Geographical Distribution 



east, only one and the same form of Bee, showing in particular 

 places only extremely slight and probably accidental variations, 

 and resembling the Egyptian form so closely that it may without 

 difficulty be regarded as originating therefrom. Nevertheless 

 this resemblance does not necessarily indicate genealogical affi- 

 nity, as many other European insects (and, indeed, many Mam- 

 malia and birds) occur with a remarkably wide geographical 

 range in Asia. 



In Africa very different conditions prevail with regard to the 

 races of Bees. Some districts lying under nearly the same lati- 

 tudes exhibit very different forms -, whilst, on the other hand, 

 different varieties as to colour occur intermixed in the same lo- 

 calities. Thus in Algiers and Tangier, situated only about 

 three hundred miles to the north of Egypt, there occurs a Bee 

 perfectly identical in colour, hair, and size with that inhabiting 

 North Germany; whilst in Egypt the form which is most 

 distinguished from all others [Apis fasciata, Latr.) by its smaller 

 size and light colour occurs, and apparently remains very con- 

 stant in its characters. A form agreeing with the Egyptian in 

 size and body-colouring, but differing in its darker hair, appears 

 to be spread over the greater part of Central and Southern 

 Africa, extending on the east coast from Abyssinia, through 

 Mozambique and Caffraria, to the Cape of Good Hope, and oc- 

 curring also on the west coast at the Senegal [Apis Adansonii, 

 Lat.). It is very remarkable that at the Cape, together with 

 this variegated form, all transitions to a nearly uniform dark 

 one occur : the latter differ from the North German Bees only 

 in smaller size — a peculiarity appertaining more or less to all 

 the African Bees, with the exception of the Algerian. This 

 uniformly dark form also occurs in Guinea together with a 

 variety with light colour only on the anterior third of the abdo- 

 men, described by Lepelletier as Ajns nigritarum, and, lastly, in 

 the Mauritius and Madagascar, where, according to Latreille, it 

 is constant in its dark colour [Apis unicolor, Lat.). 



With regard to the diffusion of the Honey-Bee in Africa, the 

 author cites the following statements from the writings of va- 

 rious travellers. In Algiers, according to Lucas*, the form 

 agreeing with the northern one is everywhere abundantly dis- 

 tributed ; it is kept in hives by the natives, and especially by the 

 Kabyles. With respect to Egy])t, the statement of De Maillet 

 has been already quoted (p. 274) with regard to the sending 

 the hives on boats along the Nile in search of a good store of 

 nourishment. Niebuhr describes the proceedings of the Egyp- 

 tian bee-keepers in precisely similar terms ; whilst neither Ehren- 

 berg nor Dr. Hartmann saw anything of the kind during their 

 ♦ Explor. Scient. de I'Algerie, Zool. iii. p. 141. 



