THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 234.— June, 1896. 



RACES AND RELATIONSHIPS OF HONEY-BEES. 

 By Richard Helms.* 



The Honey-bee originated in a warm climate. 



There can be no doubt that the Honey-bee was originally an 

 inhabitant of a mild climate, where it could avail itself of the 

 abundant supply of food required by its prolific and reproductive 

 disposition, and where moreover the conditions were most favour- 

 able for the development of that particular variation which 

 ultimately produced the extraordinary communal character we 

 find them possessed of at present. None of the allied families 

 of the order (Hymenoptera) which are found indigenous to cold 

 climates show this character to an extent approaching that of the 

 Honey-bee, except some genera of ants ; but as these possess the 

 instinctive faculty of excavating, and almost invariably construct 

 their nest in or just above the ground, or in fallen timber, the 

 dense covering of snow protects them during the severe cold of 

 the winter; the development of the burrowing instinct, therefore, 

 enables them to resist the extremes of climatic differences. The 

 Honey-bee, however, not being possessed of such an instinct, has 

 to seek a ready-made home, which she generally finds at some 

 considerable elevation above the surface of the ground, in a hollow 



* From the 'Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales,' vol. vi. part 9, 

 pp. 631-642. 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XX. JUNE, 1 8 ( J 6 . R 



