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XLI. Descriptions of Brazilian Honey Bees belonging to 

 the Genera Melipona and Trigona, which were exhi- 

 bited, together with Samples of their Honey and Wax, 

 in the Brazilian Court of the International Exhibition 

 q/'1862. By F. Smith, Esq., Pres. Ent. Soc. 



[Read ?.nd March, 1863.] 



Not a single species of honey bee belonging to the restricted 

 genus Apis is indigenous to South J^merica ; Apis mellijtca, and 

 probably other species of the same genus, were long ago im- 

 ported into the West Indian Islands, and I believe also into the 

 northern provinces of South America ; here they collect honey 

 abundantly, both in a state of domestication and also at large in 

 woods and forests. 



The substitutes for the hive bee in Brazil are the genera Meli- 

 pona and Trigona, which are there extremely abundant ; about 

 thirty species belonging to the genus Melipona are described, and 

 not less than fifty of the genus Trigona ; these insects are the 

 stingless honeybees of South America. 



Although the genera Melipona and Trigona possess several 

 characteristics in common, and these are such as form the basis of 

 many genera, still the insects included in the genus Melipona are 

 essentially distinct and different from those that here form the 

 genus Trigona. 



After a careful examination of a great number of species belong- 

 ing to both genera, I have, I trust, been able to lay down cha- 

 racters that will render their discrimination a matter of little or no 

 difficulty, having found those hitherto employed lead to inex- 

 tricable confusion and perplexity. That it is very desirable to 

 separate these bees into two or more genera will, I think, be ad- 

 mitted by every Entomologist, when it is stated that at present 

 not less than 120 species are known. 



St. Fargeau has given to one of his divisions of the genus 

 Trigona the generic title of Tetragona, but the only characteristic 

 difference is the elongated, almost quadrangular, form of the ab- 

 domen of the worker bee ; this character, if allowed to be of 

 generic value, would frequently throw the sexes into different 



