48 QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 



A queen should never be introduced to a colony that is 

 short of stores, unless the latter has been fed liberally for 

 several days. 



A colony that has been queenless for a long time will 

 not accept a queen so readily as one that has been deprived 

 of its queen or queen-cells only one or two days before. It 

 must be remembered that a colony that has been queenless 

 over ten days will probably have reared a young queen 

 if there were young larvae in the hive when the old queen 

 was lost. In such a case any queen that might be introduced 

 would certainly be destroyed, unless the young queen was 

 found and removed beforehand. When there is doubt about 

 the presence of a queen in a hive, it is a good plan to give 

 a frame of young brood, and if the bees start forming 

 queen-cells on this it is generally safe to introduce a new 

 queen. 



Black bees accept queens more readily than hvbrid bees. 

 It is not easy to introduce a black queen to hybrids : even 

 after she has been received she may be attacked and stung, 

 and so killed or paralysed for life. 



IX.— RACES OF BEES. 



Of the genus Apis three perfectly distinct species are 

 known: A. dorsata, A. jiorea, and .4.' mdlrfica* The two 

 first are found in India, Ceylon, and the East Indian Islands, 



1, Worker of Apis dorsata. 

 drone of A. melhfica. b 



Fig. 32 

 Worker of Apis floTea. a, Posterior leg of 

 Ditto of A. jiorea. The lines indicate tlie actual 

 lengths. 



* Apis indica, the bee cultivated in India, is closely allied to A. 

 mellifica and it is doubtful whether it s.hould be regarded as a separate 

 species. 



