222 
HYMENOPTRRA. 
matter they use in making their nests. M. vidua , Lep., is apparently 
the only Indian species at all common and the genus is probably found 
almost wholly in forest localities. Horne has remarks upon the habits of 
M. smithii, Bingh., (Trigona ruficornis, Sm.), which he found at Benares. 
INSECTS AND FLOWERS IN INDIA. 
I. H. Bur kill. 
The Xylocopas are the most important of flower-visiting insects in 
the plains of India, and are of very general distribution. They have 
large size and long tongues, and they visit persistently all day, and some 
of them also on moon-lit nights. The Sunn hemp crop is largely ferti¬ 
lised by them, and possibly the Indian pulses. Cassias in Calcutta are 
commonly visited by one of them and many large showy flowers. 
The place of Xylocopa in the plains is, in the hills, taken by Bombas, 
whose methods of work, degree of persistence, etc., are more or less 
completely known from studies in Europe. Bomhus ascends to the 
snows visiting Aconites, balsams, the small honeysuckles, etc., which 
grow high up. 
The genus Antliopliora has species both in the region of Xylocopa 
and the lower part of the region of Bomhus ; one of its species, A. 
zonata, does great service to plants in the plains, being a diligent visitor 
often to flowers a little less showy than Xylocopa seeks, such as the 
Labiate weeds of India, and to flowers into which it creeps such as 
Costus speciosus or Ruelia. 
Of Apis the three Indian species are important. They all seem to 
have the persistence of the hive bee, keeping generally to the same spe¬ 
cies of plants at one spell of work, and they are all diligent ; but they 
cannot work so fast as larger insects. Whereas Xylocopa latipes was 
observed to visit 30 jute flowers per minute and Xylocopa cestuans to 
visit 35 jute flowers per minute, Apis florea visited about 10—15 flowers 
per minute (see Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 1906, pp. 516 and 518). The 
rate at which Apis florea works on the extra-floral nectaries of cotton is 
about 16 fruits per minute. The short tongue of Apis florea sends it 
to comparatively insignificant flowers. It is common in places on Cor- 
chorus (jute), Evolvulus and other flowers about as broad as the insect 
is long. In the drier hills Apis indica is a very important flower- 
fertilising insect, especially where, as behind Simla, it is domesticated. 
The effect of the water-logging of Eastern Bengal on the flower- 
visiting insect fauna might be very interesting to study ; Xylocopas 
nesting in trees, Apis dorsata, Apis florea, etc., persist ; but the ground 
nesting species cannot. 
