FOREIGN BEES. 
281 
The Apis Indica of Fabricius, found in Pondicherry 
and Bengal, is of a smaller size than our domestic 
bee, if we may judge from the dimensions of the 
cells, which are only about three-fifths of the size of 
the European. This is probably the small species 
found in Ceylon. Latreille gives a figure and descrip- 
tion of a piece of comb supposed to belong to this 
species ; and taking into account the smallness of the 
cells, and the consequently greater number in a comb 
of the same area with one from our hives, he con- 
cludes the population of the Indian hive to consist 
of not less than 80,000 insects. Besides the Apis 
Indica, the naturalist just mentioned notices two 
other species met with in that region, one of which 
is one-third longer and stronger than the European 
race. This may be the same species with the second 
class described by Knox, as inhabiting Ceylon. The 
honey cells are much more capacious, and the produce 
considerably more abundant than from the last men- 
tioned Indian species. 
Hor.ey-beos abound also in the whole of the 
Eastern Archipelago ; but we have no certain account 
of their distinctive characters. We only know that 
they generally build on the boughs of trees, and that 
they are never domesticated or collected into hives. 
In fact, no attention is paid to them, farther than 
what is requisite to obtain their wax. This, we are 
told,* is an article of considerable importance in all 
the eastern islands, from whence it is exported in large 
oblong cakes to China, Bengal, and other parts of 
* Marsden’s Sumatra, p. 175. 
