296 EACES OF BEES. 



pure Italian bees, from a hive to the house, and passed the 

 comb from hand to hand among visitors, some of whom 

 were ladies, without a single bee dropping off, or attempting 

 to sting. 



555. The drones and the queens are very irreglar in mark- 

 ings, some being of a very bright yellow color, others almost 

 as dark as drones or queens of common bees. 



"It is a remarkable fact that an Italian queen, impregnated 

 by a common drone, and a common queen impregnated by an 

 Italian drone, do not produce workers of a uniform intermediate 

 cast, or hybrids; but some of the workers bred from the eggs 

 of each queen will be purely of the Italian, and others as purely 

 of the common race, only a, few of them, indeed, being ap- 

 parently hybrids. Berlepsch also had several mismated queens, 

 which at first produced Italian workers exclusively, and after- 

 wards common workers as exclusively. Some such queens pro- 

 duced fully three-fourths Italian workers; others, common work- 

 ers in the same proportion. Nay, he states that he had one 

 beautiful orange-yellow mismated Italian queen which did not 

 produce a single Italian worker, but only common workers, per- 

 haps a shade lighter in color. The drones, however, produced 

 by a mismated Italian queen are uniformly of the Italian race, 

 and this fact, besides demonstrating the truth of Dzierzon's 

 theory, ( 133 ) renders the preservation and perpetuation of the 

 Italian race, in its purity, entirely feasible in any country 

 where they may be introduced." — S. Wagner. 



556. The Italian bees from different parts of Italy are of 

 different shades, but otherwise, preserve about the same 

 characteristics all over the peninsula. But how can they keep 

 pure, since there are common bees in Europe? A glance at 

 the map will answer the question. Italy is surrounded on all 

 sides by water or snow-covered mountains, which offer an 

 insuperable barrier to any insects. This is further evidenced 

 by the fact that the bees of the canton of Tessin (Italian 

 Switzerland) are Italians, being on the South side of the Alps, 

 while those of the canton of Uri (German Switzerland), on 



