* PEOM THE NOETH-WEST PROVINCES OF INDIA. 181 



Apis plokalis, Fabr. (Plate XXII. figs. 2, 2 a, 2 5, & 2 c.) 

 This is a very interesting little bee, which builds its beautiful comb on the boughs of 

 orange- and lemon-trees and garden bushes generally. The honey is much prized, and 

 held by the natives to possess medicinal qualities. It is very harmless ; and although I 

 have handled them freely, I never remember to have been stung by one. I procured 

 two queens by taking the nests with all the bees in them into a dark room with a small 

 window ; the bees gradually flew to the window, and I thus easily found the queen. 

 The males are seldom with the nest ; and out of some twenty I only met with them in two 

 cases. I imagine they are driven out when they have performed their functions, as my 

 gardener told me he often found them on and in the ground under the nests. In their 

 general habits they entirely agree with A. dorsata ; the only difference is that they 

 select the inside of bushes, and loop their nest round the bough, instead of entirely 

 hanging it on below, I have occasionally found nests of this species built in the 

 interior of mud walls, in the cavities between bricks, or in the hollows excavated by 

 Termites. 



The wax is of a fine yellow colour ; but so little of it is found as not to make it worth 

 while to collect it for commercial purposes. 



Their nests are infested by several moths, species of Pampelia, Aphomia, and Galleria 

 having been bred by me from them. 



Apis doesata, Fabr. (Plate XXII. figs. 3, 3 a, & 3 b.) 



This is perhaps the best-known of the Indian honey-bees. It is extensively kept in 

 a domestic state in the Himalehs, in hives generally consisting of hollow logs of wood 

 buUt into the houses. Much honey is collected and brought for sale, especially at 

 Petwaghur, in Kumaon ; and the wax is also an article of trade. This bee, when in a 

 wild state, is most savage in its disposition, and is very easily provoked, in which case it 

 saUies forth in large parties, pounces on the supposed offender, and often causes great 

 injury and annoyance. 



The Moth {Galleria mellolella) will be hereafter described as a parasite; but its 

 appearance in a large comb of three years' standing, and the consequent flight of the 

 bees, gave me the opportunity of recording the following note : — 



"Nov. 13, 1866, at Mainpuri.— My head gardener, an inteUigent man, came to me 

 reporting that all the bees had swarmed off, leaving entirely deserted a very large comb 

 of the common honey-bee, which was hanging to a branch of a tree. I at once pro- 

 ceeded to the spot, and, after examining the comb with a glass, found his statement to 

 be correct. I also tracked the bees, which had alighted in a very large swarm on a 

 tree about half a mile off On cutting down the comb I found it to be 28^ inches 

 across by 22 inches, and nearly 5 inches thick at its thickest part. It was about three 

 years old, as was plainly shown by the varied colour of the new ranges of cells. 



