290 RACES OF BEES. 
prise will be balked by the task. It behooves our govern- 
ment to take such matters in hand for the public good. 
Besides Apis dorsata, two other kinds exist in India, Apis 
florea and Apis Indica. The latter is cultivated by the 
natives with good results. Both are smaller than our com- 
mon bee. 
5683. Another race of bees,* the Melipone, is found in 
Brazil and Mexico. More than twelve varieties of these 
have been described, all without stings. 
Huber, in the beginning of this century, received a nest 
of them, but the bees died before reaching Geneva. Mr. 
Drory, while at Bordeaux, France, was more successful. 
One of his friends sent him a colony of Melipones, and he 
published in the ‘‘Rucher du Sud-QOuest ’’ some very curious 
facts concerning them. The cells containing the stores of 
honey and pollen are not placed near those intended for 
brood, but higher in the hive; they are as large as pigeon 
eggs, and attached in clusters to the walls of the hive. The 
brood cells are placed horizontally in rows of several sto- 
ries. The workers do not nurse the brood, but fill the cells 
with food, on which the queen lays. The cells are then 
closed till the young bees emerge from them. 
A peculiarity of these bees is that the entrance to their 
home, which is very narrow, is usually watched by a single 
bee, acting as janitor, and withdrawing from the door to let 
the workers pass. They cannot stand the cold, and Mr. 
Drory could not save his, in spite of his care, in a location 
as mild as that of Bordeaux. Mr. T. F. Bingham of Abronia, 
Michigan, imported a nest of them, in the Spring of 1886, 
and lost them the same Fall. <A part of their nest was exhib- 
ited by him at the Indianapolis Convention, in October 1868. 
® These bees are scientifically classified as belonging to a different genus of 
Apida. 
