96 J. C. Douglas — Tie Hive-Bees indigenous to India, Sfc. [No. 1, 



Of tiie eueniies of bees, the larger hornets are troublesome for a 

 short period of the year. They carry off bees, and large flight boards should 

 be removed from hives at this season in an apiary. A boy with a bag-net 

 to catch and kill the hornets and the destruction of hornets' nests with 

 turpentine or other agents would be appropriate remedies. The wasp or 

 yellow hornet does no harm, unless the hive entrance is too wide. Weak 

 stocks always require special protection, but I have found A. ligustica well 

 able to defend itself against wasps, and even the large hornets have been 

 found by me dead on the flight-board. The large death's-head moths are 

 said to rob bees in Europe, and to be proof against the bees' anger. I once 

 found two dead moths inside a hive ; they were dry and had evidently been 

 killed by the bees. On another occasion I noticed great excitement in a 

 hive and found it due to a large number of bees engaged in removing a 

 death's-head moth they had just killed in the entrance to the hive J 

 this moth was 2^" long from head to tips of closed wings. It is probable 

 that this moth robs A. indica and A.florea. Toads sit in front of hives 

 in the evening and catch the bees, unless the hives are occasionally 

 visited at this time and the toads destroyed. Lizards visit hives and live 

 under the hive or get between the walls of hives. A nest of large black 

 ants once attacked a hive of A . ligustica, but such occurrences as this are 

 easily guarded against. It does not appear that the enemies of the hive- 

 bee are worse in India than elsewhere, excepting the large hornets, and 

 these would be readily dealt with in the case of apiaries ; in England, 

 boys are paid a trifling sum for queen- wasps, and nests of these pests are 

 destroyed by means of a little turpentine; traps are also used. The 

 fact that the wild hive-bees are so exceedingly abundant proves they are 

 able without man's protection successfully to struggle against their 

 enemies, while their number must act to reduce the number of the 

 cultivated bees destroyed. 



