70 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 



In Table VIII the entire family of the Apidae is credited with 

 41.31 per cent of the visits, but in the text Muller frequently refers 

 to the fact that on some plants the honey bee far outnumbers all 

 other insects. He speaks of the honey bees and the bumblebees of 

 the genus Bombus as playing "by far the most important part in 

 fertilizing our [German] indigenous flowers.' ' On the other hand, 

 Britton and Viereck a attempt to show that the honey bee is not so 

 important as has generally been claimed by horticulturists and 

 entomologists. They find that " honey bees were exceedingly scarce 

 in comparison with other species of Hymenoptera — or in fact with 

 other insects." From collections made from flowers in 1904 at the 

 experiment station at New Haven and in 1905 at Branford, Conn., 

 the following records were made: 





O <D 





03 g 





Pi . 



ft3 



02 O 



1 



ft 



s5 

 ft 



ft 

 < 



C3 



ft 



6 



& 



3^ 



c3 3 



5P 



Hymenoptera 



Apis mellifera 



46 



28 



15 



5 



23 



29 

 1 

 4 

 4 



8 

 1 



32 

 1 



16 

 3 

 1 



17 



""g 



3 



22 



1 

 7 

 1 



8 



1 



13 



4 



Diptera 



19 

 4 

 3 



27 

 2 

 2 



7 

 1 



8 

 2 



16 

 5 







Coleoptera 







2 



Hemiptera 































Total number of 

 specimens 



72 



59 



23 



15 



44 



37 



8 



52 



29 



30 



8 



13 



6 



It seems fair to assume that on account of their great numbers the small bees belong- 

 ing to the Halictidse and the Andrenidse are more important agents in carrying pollen 

 than has been supposed, and in the vicinity of New Haven during the seasons of 

 1904 and 1905 were of far greater benefit in pollinating the flowers of the plants from 

 which they were collected than were the honey bees. 



Earlier in the paper they say: "It is not known to the writers 

 that bees are kept in the immediate vicinity of the experiment sta- 

 tion; there are several hives less than 2 miles awa}^. Wild honey 

 bees are probably not very abundant so near the city." 



There are several facts which should be taken into consideration 

 in connection with this paper — facts not mentioned by the authors. 

 In the first place, comparatively few honey bees are kept in the part 

 of Connecticut around New Haven. Furthermore, a scourge of bee 

 disease is said to have decimated the bees of Connecticut some years 

 ago, and doubtless this decreased the number of bees in a wild state 

 as much as it is known to have done in the case of bees in hives. No 

 disease is now recorded from the vicinity of New Haven, but it may 

 still be there unreported, it being found in many parts of the State- 

 Further, in the vicinity of cities, bees are generally less prevalent 



« Britton and Viereck, 1906. — Insects Collected from the Flowers of Fruit Trees and 

 Plants. Fifth Report of the Connecticut State Entomologist for the Year 1905, New 

 Haven, Conn, 



