1 8 JOUKNAL OF SCIENCE. 



The first point to be noticed about them is that here the bees 

 have few or no enemies except small boys, and perhaps bee-keepers. 

 In their native habitats they have to contend against very numerous 

 enemies, and most readers will remember Darwin's famous remarks* 

 about humble-bees and field-mice : — " The number of humble-bees 

 in any district depends in a great measure on the number of field- 

 mice, which destroy their combs and nests ; and Col. Newman, who 

 has long attended to the habits of humble-bees, believes that ' more 

 than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed over all England.' Now 

 the number of mice is largely dependent, as every one knows, on the 

 number of cats ; and Col. Newman says, ' Near villages and small 

 towns I have found the nests of humble-bees more numerous than 

 elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the 

 mice.' Hence it is quite credible that the presence of a feline 

 animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the 

 intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain 

 flowers in that district." Mice are by no means abundant in the 

 open country in New Zealand, at least in those parts where rabbits 

 and introduced small birds have become a pest, and where, 

 consequently, cats are encouraged. Nor can I find that there are 

 any other enemies of the bees here that are at all conspicuous. Some 

 of the insects are, however, extraordinarily infested by mites, which 

 cover parts of the body — especially the bare posterior portion of the 

 thorax — to such an extent as to completely hide the integument. 

 These mites were no doubt introduced originally with the first bees, 

 but I cannot say whether they are a greater pest here than in the 

 Old Country. 



A second remarkable point in connection with the life of the 

 humble-bees is, that in many parts of the Colony they do not appear 

 to hibernate at all. In England those insects which survive the 

 winter appear about April, and immediately proceed to seek out 

 suitable quarters for the establishment of their homes. Mr. Hudson 

 tells me that the neuters do not appear until June. 



In this part of the colony the past winter was extremely mild, and 

 the hibernation of the bees was very short. I saw them nearly daily 

 on various flowers right through the summer and autumn up till 5th 

 June. On the following day the weather became suddenly cold with 

 frost at night, and the humble-bees disappeared until August 13th, 

 when they were again seen. For nearly a month afterwards the 

 weather remained fine, and night frosts were frequent, yet for a few 

 hours in the hottest part of the day the bees were seen regularly. 

 Mr. James Gilmore of Goodwood, about 30 miles North of Dunedin, 

 states that he saw them right through the winter, except in rainy 

 weather. In the middle of July, when the nights and mornings 

 were very frosty, the bees came out in the middle of the day if the 

 sun was shining. If this is so in this comparatively cold part of the 

 colony, we may expect that in those parts where frost is unknown no 

 hibernation will take place at all. It is worthy of note, however, that 

 only large females survive the winter. This season the first small 

 bees of the new brood were seen by me on 22nd November. 



'Origin of Specie?," 6th Kdit., p. 57. 



