16 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



ing a semitransparent or '^watery" appearance, whicli is undesirable. 

 They are extremely sensitive, hence easily angered by rough or bun- 

 gling manipulators, and when once thoroughly aroused are very ener- 

 getic in the use of their stings. These faults have caused a very 

 general rejection of Cyprians, especially by those who produce comb 

 honey. P^ven the producers of extracted honey do not seem to have 

 learned how to manipulate Cyprians easily and without the use of 

 much smoke, nor how much more rapidly they could free their extract- 

 ing combs from Cyprian bees than from Italians. Nor have they 

 seemed to count as of much importance the fact that Cyprians, unlike 

 Italians and German or common bees, do not volunteer an attack 

 when undisturbed 5 that they will, in fact, let one pass and repass 

 their hives quite unmolested and even under such circumstances as 

 would call forth a vigorous and very disagreeable protest from the 

 other races just mentioned. It is to be regretted that there has been 

 such a widespread rejection of a race having such important and well- 

 established excellent qualities. It would be easier by selection in 

 breeding to reduce the faults of this race than to bring any other cul- 

 tivated race to tbeir equal in tlie other desirable points. 



Cyprians are smaller-bodied and more slender than bees of European 

 races. The abdomen is also more pointed and shows, when the bees 

 are purely bred, three light orange bands on the three segments nearest 

 the thorax. The underside of the abdomen is even lighter orange 

 colored nearly or quite to the tip. The postscutellum — the small 

 lunule-like i)rominence on the thorax between the bases of the wings — 

 is likewise orange colored instead of dull, as in European races. The 

 rest of the thorax is covered with a russet- brown pubescence. Cyp- 

 rians are the yellowest of the original races, and their bright colors 

 and symmetrical forms render them attractive objects. 



J^a/mws.— Through the agency of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture bees of this race were introduced direct from Italy in 

 1860. There had previously been repeated individual efforts to secure 

 Italians bred in Germany, where the race had been introduced some 

 years earlier, and a small number of queens had been landed here alive 

 in the autumn of 1859, but most of these died the following winter and 

 the few remaining alive seem not to have been multiplied as rapidly as 

 those obtained in Italy by a purchasing agent of the Department of 

 Agriculture and landed here early in 1860. Their good qualities were 

 soon appreciated, and they had become well established and widely 

 spread long before the Cyprians, imported twenty years later. For 

 this reason, together with the fact that they cap their surplus combs 

 whiter than some other races and because less skill is required in 

 subduing and handling Italians, they have retained their popularity 

 over bees which, though better honey gatherers, are more nervous 

 under manipulation. Their golden-yellow color has also proved so 

 attractive to many that the good qualities of more somber-hued races- 

 gentler, better winterers, and better comb builders— have not received 



