Brazilian Honey Bees. 501 



" Urussu," as large as a humble bee, having a black head and 

 yellow body; this is probably a species of Euglossa ; its honey, he 

 says, is good. A species called " Urussu preto" is black, and more 

 than an inch long ; this also may probably be a species of Eu- 

 glossa. 



Sir John Hearsay informed me that he had observed the small 

 stingless honey bees, Trigona, commonly in India, particularly so 

 at Darjeeling, and that they affix their combs to the branches of 

 shrubs and trees, without any kind of exterior covering. The 

 wild honey bees, belonging to the genus Apis, also suspend them 

 in the same manner ; one species, (apparently, from description, 

 the Apis dorsata), he secured in a box prepared for that purpose ; 

 after feeding them in confinement a few days, they readily do- 

 mesticated themselves, and accumulated a large store of honey. 



The Vespidce, enumerated in the present paper, were sent from 

 Brazil with the honey bees, but neither honey or wax, as having 

 been produced by them ; it is probable, however, that all were 

 considered honey gatherers ; the Nectarina analis has long been 

 known to collect honey, and likewise the Nectarina Leche guana ; 

 that whicli is collected by the latter species is by St. Hilaire 

 said to be of a poisonous quality ; the injurious effects it pro- 

 duced upon himself and his companions, he has described, as 

 being attended with considerable danger. The nest of this wasp 

 he found attached to a small bush, about a foot from the ground, 

 of an oval shape, and about the size of a man's head, being 

 covered with a chartaceous envelope, like that of European wasps. 



There are more than a dozen species known of the genus Nec- 

 tarina, but the honey collected by the different species is not all 

 poisonous. 



St. Hilaire mentions two sorts of Lecheguana as being well 

 known to the natives, one giving a white, the other a red honey ; 

 the white is innocuous, the red always poisonous. 



In the nest room at the British Museum there are several 

 wasps' nests that have contained honey ; but in all, it is appa- 

 rent that the cells are not constructed of a material adapted for 

 containing it, and consequently such nests are materially da- 

 maged by the honey penetrating and dropping from one layer of 

 comb to another. 



A nest was presented to the Museum last year, about two feet 

 in length, and fifteen inches in diameter at the broadest part ; the 

 nest was that o£ Polybia scute liar is ; for the purpose of investiga- 

 tion, the nest was divided longitudinally ; it contained upwards of 

 a hundred specimens of a living Mantispa {Trichoscelis varia), 



