92 J. C. Douglas — The Hirc-Bces indigenous to India [No. 1, 



that the varieties and species found wild differ widely with climate, and 

 that those of one climate do not naturally — and for obvious reasons — 

 spread into an adjacent widely differing climate, for wild life in which their 

 differentiation has unfitted them, but that, when man cultivates the 

 animal under different climatic conditions, his care removes the adverse 

 conditions. The data supplied by A;pis mellijica alone must leave the ques- 

 tion inconclusive, but in India we find several species each varying with 

 locality, all wild, and the data supplied are of higher value. We find 

 the same law as to variations of colour and size with climate in India for 

 three species certainly as is found in Europe for A. mellijica. We find 

 A. dorsata, apparently the least differentiated form, building no drone- 

 cells, the drone being about the same size and shape as the worker, 

 differing, however, in the head ; this species builds normally one comb 

 under a bough, the worker is long in shape, resembling somewhat in this 

 respect the queens of the other species. A. florea is apparently highly 

 differentiated, its drone differing most in size and shape from the worker. 

 The queens of A. mellijica, A. florea, A. indica, the Bhootea, and the 

 Bushahr bees differ much less in size and shape than do workers and 

 drones of the respective races, the perfect female being the least and the 

 drone the most differentiated. A. florea and A. dorsata, living under more 

 constant conditions, might be expected to vary less, respectively, than the 

 bees building in cavities fitting them for inhabiting widely different cli- 

 mates, e. g.j A. indica of Lower Bengal and the Bushahr variety of A. melli- 

 fica. The nest of single-comb bees is simpler than that of multicomb bees 

 and obviously less protective, for the bees are spread out instead of being 

 able to cluster ; the simpler nest is obviously only suited to warm climates. 

 But the single-comb bees duplicate their combs under favourable condi- 

 tions ; they inlmbit caves and other cavities, A. florea building in houses ; 

 under these conditions they duplicate their combs and their honey becomes 

 denser like that of A. mellifica, but they do not appear to start a namber 

 of parallel combs like A. mellifica. The nest of the single-comb bee 

 merges into that of the multicomb bee, and the bee building in the open 

 air merges into the bee inhabiting a cavity. In regions near the hills and 

 mountain slopes all the bees appear to migrate : A. dorsata and A. florea 

 readily move from place to place, in the plains, if food fails : A. indica 

 readily absconds if interfered witl), while A. mellifica does not abscond, 

 excepting under severe pressure, as when the number of bees is reduced 

 to very few. If we suppose A. mellifica descended from a progenitor, 

 somewhat like A. dorsata, inhabiting a hot climate, we are enabled to 

 explain many of its habits : the habit of clustering on a branch when 

 swarming, no longer of use, is a survival of a habit of its progenitor : so 

 also its absconding under pressure and the rearing by it of drones in 



