INSECTS PRODUCING WAX, RESIN, HONEY, MANNA. 73 



Reaumur, Bonnet, Latreille, Needham, Kirby, 

 Swammerdam, Kirby and Spence, Mills, Thorley, 

 Hunter, Keys, Bonner, Schiroch, Bevan, etc., etc. 



Apis mellifica, the domestic bee, reared in hives, 

 is the same throughout Europe, except in some parts 

 of Italy, the Morea, and some of the Grecian isles, 

 where another species is cultivated, the Apis ligus- 

 tica (?) of Spinola. The domestic bee ( A. mellifica) 

 is found wild in the forests of Russia, and some 

 parts of Asia, where it builds its nests in hollow 

 trees. Another kind of bee, the Apis amalthea of 

 Latreille, is found at Cayenne, where it builds curi- 

 ously-shaped nests upon the tops of high trees; 

 these nests are something like a bagpipe. They are 

 seen also in South America, and furnish large quan- 

 tities of honey, but this honey, though very sweet 

 and agreeable, is very liquid and difficult to keep, as 

 it easily ferments. 



Another species of wild bee, which has been 

 called Bamburos, is very plentiful in the woods of 

 Ceylon, where it is eaten as a delicacy, though it 

 furnishes a considerable harvest of honey to the 

 peasants. 



In the Ukraine some of the country people, we are 

 told, derive more profit from the sale of their honey 

 than from their corn; some peasants keeping as many 

 as 500 hives each. The Indians of Paraguay, the 

 natives of the Isle of Bourbon, of Madagascar, etc., 



