TEOM THE NOETH-WEST PEOVINCES OF INDIA. 185 



Trigona ruficornis, Smith. 



This is one of the smallest honey-bees I have ever met with ; and its habits are curious. 

 I noticed it under the following circumstances ; and I never again met with its nest, 

 although the natives all know it. One evening, at Benares (April 4, 1863), as I was 

 standing at my door I saw a swarm of from 400 to 500 of what I took to be midges 

 i-apidly flying about in a mazy kind of dance, occupying a space of five or six feet, and 

 being about ten feet from the ground. I brought out my insect-net and caught about 

 a hundred in one sweep, when, to my surprise, they proved to be bees. On watching 

 them I observed that they went in and out of a little hole in the wall close by, under a 

 beam where was a hollow, and that many of their thighs were laden with pollen. 



The insects seemed quite harmless, walking about my hand and not attempting to 

 sting. Digging out some bricks with care, I came on a portion of their nest. The 

 space it occupied appeared to have been originally eaten out by Termites. It was 

 coated on all sides with a layer of black wax, and in it was stored their honey. The 

 waxen cells were of a dark brown colour and very globular, pendent side by side from 

 the roof, and not, as far as I could see, arranged hexagonally. 



The honey was very dark in colour, but excellent in flavour; and I was told by the 

 natives that it possessed medicinal qualities. It had a slight astringency; and, con- 

 sidering the size of the insect, the quantity stored was very large. I was also told that 

 these insects commonly use hollow trees, in which they store astonishing quantities of 

 honey, which is diligently sought for and highly prized. They called them ''Bhonga," 

 which appears to me to be a generic name for all bees in the North-west Provinces. 

 Large bricks prevented my digging further, so that I cannot describe their breeding-cells. 



The bees continued to fly in the manner before described till dark, and did not 

 desert their nest. 



Note, — As when in India I refrained from capturing the domesticated bees, I had 

 no specimens in my collection; but from examples since obtained I have reason to 

 believe that the species in general domestication is either Aj)is indica or A, nigrocincta. 

 Both these species are much smaller ; and the comb made in the cupboard at Maldon, 

 Nynee Tal, in 1849, was probably their work, as they prefer hollows of trees, or even 

 crevices in rocks, as opposed to A. dorsata^ which hang their combs from the under- 

 side of boughs of trees or rocks. All the notes above recorded, with this exception, 

 apply to A. dorsata, whose savage disposition would seem ill to brook captivity. 



VOL. vii. — PART III. April, 1870. ^ ^ 



