6io 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
it quickly rose to high favour. M, Hermann, a bee- 
cultivator, Canton Orison, Switzerland, transmitted the 
first consignment of living Italians that reached our 
shores to Mr. A. Neighbour — the late Mr. Woodbury, 
the “ Devonshire Bee-keeper,” receiving, in the same 
package, a queen and her attendants. These arrived 
July 19th, 1859. Since that time, importation has 
been continued, and the race multiplied, until almost 
all our black bees give indications of an admixture of 
Italian blood. 
The Italian Alp bee, called Ligurian, from Liguria, 
the Roman name for the district lying immediately 
North of the Gulf of Genoa, really extends over 
Northern Italy and South-eastern Switzerland, its limits 
being set by the Helvetic and Carnic Alps. There 
are, however, two types of the Italian. The smaller, 
very bright in its colouring, possessing a yellow scu- 
tellum, and a less amiable temper than its relative, 
is referred to by Morawitz and Douglas as suited to 
hot climates, and is stated by Dr. Gerstacker to 
extend to the islands and mainland of Asia Minor and 
the Caucasus. This is mainly found in Southern 
Italy. The larger, rounder, more tawny, and better 
known type, commonly called the ‘‘ leather-coloured 
Italian,” prevails in the North ; but these diffe- 
rences shade insensibly into one another. This bee 
is somewhat less than mellifica ; the abdomen is 
flatter and more pointed, but the main distinctions 
lie in colour. The six telescopic, abdominal rings of 
mellifica are all dark, but four light bands cross the 
dorsal (back) plates, consisting of very closely-set, 
short, tawny hairs. When, by the presence of Bacillus 
