Jan. 1908.] 



49 



Live Stock. 



lighter than Apis mellifica. Males about the same length as the workers, but bigger, 

 with a darkish abdomen without stripes, general colour blackish. It is difficult to 

 distinguish the queen from the workers even in size. 



Characteristics op the variety at the top op the Ghauts. 

 Length of the workers 13 millimetres- Bands of the abdomen alternately 

 yellow or whitish and black. General tint rather black. Body somewhat shorter 

 than the type of the plains. Males are little shorter but thick, black and very hairy. 

 In the plains Apis indica builds six workers' cells and five drone cells per inch ; on the 

 hills about five workers and four drone cells. These two are extreme varieties, the 

 rest are intermediate between them. Plains type more prolific than the hills type, 

 but the latter much more productive. The type in the plains resembles the native 

 Indian in his carelessness and inclination for a rough life and bad lodging. Never 

 stops up holes in trees or its nests with propolis (bee glue). Reasons for choosing 

 sites for nests not discoverable. Except when in large numbers bees share the 

 hollows of trees with spiders, cockroaches and lizards. The bee of the hills is much 

 more active and more careful in choosing and guarding its abode. Both varieties 

 are very tractable and just as suitable therefore for culture as any other variety. 

 Attempts at cultivation has only recently (1893) been begun both in the plains and in 

 the hills, but European bee-keepers are few though zealous, and the natives are 

 likely to abide for a long time by their old system of chasing away and smoking out 

 the bees without pity, a system which often gives them hardly more than a pint of 

 honey to a nest. Attempt at keeping Apis indica very successful. In Calcutta 

 one bee-keeper did so following the English system. Nevertheless it is more common 

 to find hives of a breed crossed with Apis ligustica or even purely of that breed. 

 In the plains the Indian bee works all the year round, and its activity entirely 

 depends on the plentif ulness of the flowers which he prefers. The giant of the bees 

 is Apis dorsata. It is less common in the plains than in the hills. In Southern India 

 its favourite habitat apparently between 300 and 2,000 metres above the sea-level. 

 Swarms never found above 2,000 metres and rather rare in the plains, but seen 

 everywhere at intermediate heights. However, their flight is strong enough to 

 allow them to gather honey at more than 2,500 metres. Their deep buzz shows them 

 to be industrious workers, as may be noticed in the hills where Apis indica and Apis 

 dorsata are to be heard humming in deep and high notes respectively on trees of 

 Australian acacia or Japanese Ailantus. The Apis dorsata in such eases furiously 

 active in its work. These bees only build one comb ; more than a metre in diameter, 

 the cells for the workers and for the drones of the same size 5*5. millimetres long by 

 15 millimetres deep ; the honey cells which are at the top of the comb but more one 

 side rather larger, 6'5 millimetres long and up to 7 centimetres deep. This single 

 comb always in the open on big branches of trees, jutting rocks, entrance gates of 

 houses, of towns or temples, &c. Never troubled by the bats and other animals in 

 the locality, with the exception of the wax moth of which the bees seem to have such 

 a horror, that two or three moth grubs have been known to cause the desertion of a 

 nest. The sting of these bees not more severe nor more dangerous than that of others, 

 but their character apparently more irritable especially at certain times. On one 

 occasion some amateurs disturbed a swarm of these bees, and were attacked by them 

 and had to run many hundred yards away from the wood. Each received twenty or 

 thirty stings ; but for some reason or other, perhaps on account of the number of the 

 stings, or ou account of the rapidity with which they had to run, no swelling 

 developed, and only one of the party felt a certain stiffness all over his body for some 

 time. These same bees did not attack the author when he went to smoke them out 

 next morning in order to examine their nest. Nevertheless, they have been known 

 to attack Indians without any apparent cause, probably after there had been 

 some domestic disturbances in the nest. The Apis dorsata differs from all other 

 7 



