THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
121 
1. The small bees, whose workers are less ! 
than three-eights of an inch in length ; their 1 
nest is exposed attached to a twig from six to j 
fifteen feet above the ground. It consists of a 
single small comb, which the bees, when 
frightened, itemporarily forsake. The queen 
is at once distinguished by the comparatively 
enormous size of her thorax ; the drones, too, are 
very different from the drones of other bees, 
the dense velvet down on the thorax being want- 
ing, and the abdomen narrower and more 
curved, but most curious are the large blunt 
lobes or pegs on the tarsal segments of the 
posterior legs, arising from its anterior upper 
margin and passing downwards, no rudiment or 
trace of which can be seen in ordinary drones. 
These bees are found only in tropical Asia and 
the Islands of the Malay Archipelago : owing i 
to their small size they are of no use to bee- 
keepers or to bee-hunters. Only one species is 
known, Apis Jlorea. 
2. The big bees, whose workers are more than , 
five-eighths of an inch in length ; these, too, 
have their nest exposed, and composed of only a 1 
single comb, but this a large one, and generally j 
placed on inaccessible cliffs or large unclimbable 
trees, though occasionally in more accessible 
places. Owing to the position of their nests and j 
the size of their stings these bees can success- j 
fully drive off all enemies by day. They, too, 
are found only in tropical Asia and the islands 
of the Malay Archipelago. Owing to the 
quantity of wax in their large comb, it is highly 
valued by natives, but these bees are not 
domesticated. Apis dorsata is the common, 
well-known species found as far eastwards as 
the isle of Titnore. Apis zonata is a little 
known species, found only, I think, in the Island 
of Celebes. 
3. The medium-sized bees, whose workers are 
more than three-eights of an inch aud less than 
five-eighths of an inch in length ; their nests are 
always sheltered in hives, in hollow trees, in 
roofs of houses, or some such places ; they build 
several parallel combs, they consist of species, 
varieties, and races, scattered over the whole of 
the habitable old world. 
Apis indica. the smallest and one of the most 
distinct, is found in tropical Asia ami the islands 
of the Malay Archipelago. 
Apis unicolor , small, dark in colour, and 
distinct from others, is found iu Madagascar. 
From Africa comes Apis adansonii ; from 
Egypt, Apis fasciata', from Europe, Apis 
mdlijica ; from China, Apis sinensis. Almost 
every country has a special variety or race ; 
sometimes these, when brought together, iuter- 
breed, but sometimes two can be found iu the 
same country which appear to keep distinct. 
Up this Sarawak River are four species of 
Apis : — 
I, Apis Jlorea.— I saw this bee in Ceylon, it 
seemed rare in the hill country, but very com- 
mon near Anuruadhapoora, where, on their 
nests being disturbed, the bees fled without 
stinging, so that Cinghalese boys have no diffi- 
culty in eating their honey, and Mr. Davison 
tells me that tne same is the case in the south 
of India ; but here, although the bees readily 
leave their combs, they will sting as well and 
more effectually than their size would lead one 
to expect. I have not yet caught a drone here, 
for the wet season is on, and there are no drones 
now. The workers of these bees vary greatly in 
the colour of their abdomen, the most common 
thing is for the two basal segments of the abdo- 
men to be coloured, and the others black, but 
in the same nest will be found some without a 
bit of colour in the abdomen, and some in which 
nearly all the segments of the abdomen are 
coloured. Has Mr. Benton been guilty of this 
atrocity, or will some amateur detective find 
another culprit in this matter? 
2. Apis dorsata. — I have not noticed any 
difference between this bee and the one like it 
which I saw iu Ceylon, except that in Ceylon it 
was quite absent from the flat country round 
Anuraadhapoora, but here is common both in 
the low country and in the hills. lhe workers 
usually have the two basal segments of the 
abdomen coloured, the other segments black, 
except for a gray band quite at their base ; but 
some workers have the tnird segment coloured, 
and some have the whole upper surface of the 
abdomen coloured. I saw quite a number of 
these last on a nest I examined through a 
telescope, but could see no drones, I suppose 
because it is the wet scasou, yet swarms of these 
bees are frequently seen flying overhead. 
3. A pis indica. — The commonest bee here, 
length of the worker seven-sixteenths of an 
inch ; these bees do not vary much in the colour 
j of the abdomen, in the majority the scutellum is 
coloured, but in many it is not. At this time of 
j year there are no drones. The bees do not store 
much honey, they have no winter to go through, 
and many enemies, so they prefer breeding and 
swarming. They are very quiet bees, quieter 
than two colonies of indica which I examined in 
j Ceylon ;they can be easily manipulated wittiout 
smoke, hut they readily take to the wing— the 
queen as welt as the workers — so that it is 
impossible 'o drive them. Four times 1 have 
tried transferring to bar-framed hive, aud once 
the simple removal of the queen, in every case 
they forsook the hive aud all their brood a few 
days after, but the wet season was on, and the 
quantity of their brood uot large. Amongst the 
enemies to these bees is a species of Trigona, 
yellow and black, and small in size, this, finding 
its way through the cracks in a Dyak hive 
establishes itself in the upper regions of the 
comb, builds a wall between itself and the 
owners of the honey, behind which it eats the 
honey, leaving the midrib of the comb quite 
bare, and in places destroying this too. I 
opened two hives attacked by this small bee, and 
in neither case did I find any of their brood, but 
the Dyaks thought they sometimes had brood in 
the hives, but say that a few mouths after the 
Trigona comes ihe Apis generally forsake its 
; hive. 
4. Apis Jtaca. — The proper name of this bee I 
do not know, so for the present 1 will use the 
above name ; the workers are at once recoguised 
by their bright yellow colour ; their head is 
