716 
RACES OF BEES 
mentioned elsewhere under head of Ital¬ 
ians. Of other Eastern races Frank Ben¬ 
ton, formerly Apicultural Expert of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
wrote a special bulletin, from which the 
following extracts are made: 
THE COMMON EAST-INDIAN HONEYBEE. 
(Apis indica, Fab.) 
The common bee of Southern Asia is kept 
in very limited numbers and with a small 
degree of profit in earthern jars and sections 
of hollow trees in portions of the British and 
Fig. 1. — Worker-cells of Common East Indian 
Honeybee (Apis indica )natural size. 
Dutch East Indies. They are also found 
wild, and build when in this state in hollow 
trees and in rock clefts. Their combs are 
composed of hexagonal wax cells, and are 
arranged parallel to each other like those of 
A. mellifica, but the worker brood-cells are 
smaller than those of our ordinary bees, 
Fig. 2.—Worker-cells of Common East Indian 
Honeybee (Ajris inaica), one-third natural size. 
showing 36 to the square inch of surface in¬ 
stead of 29; while the comb where worker- 
brood is reared, instead of having, like that 
of A. mellifica, a thickness of seven-eighths 
inch, is but five-eighths inch thick. (Fig. 1.) 
The workers.—-The bodies of these, three- 
eighths inch long when empty, measure about 
one-half inch when dilated with honey. The 
thorax is covered with brownish hair, and 
the shield or crescent between the wings is 
large and yellow. The abdomen is yellow 
underneath. Above it presents a ringed ap¬ 
pearance, the anterior part of each segment 
being orange yellow, while the posterior 
part shows bands of brown of greater or 
less width, and is covered with whitish- 
brown hairs; the tip is black. They are 
nimble on foot and on the wing, and active 
gatherers. 
The queens.—The queens are large in pro¬ 
portion to their workers, and are quite pro¬ 
lific; color, leather or dark copper. 
The drones.—These are only slightly lar¬ 
ger than the workers; color, a jet-like blue- 
black, without yellow, their strong wings 
showing changing hues like those of wasps. 
Manipulations with colonies of these bees 
are easy to perform if smoke be used; and, 
tho they are more excitable than our com¬ 
mon hive bees this peculiarity does not in- 
Fig. 3.—Worker-cells of the tiny East Indian Hon¬ 
ey bee (Apis florea), natural size. 
duce excessive stinging, but seems rather to 
proceed from fear. The sting is also less 
severe. 
Under the rude methods thus far employed 
in the management of this bee no great yields 
of honey are obtained, some 10 or 12 pounds 
having been the most reported from a single 
hive. It is quite probable these little bees 
would yield more if imported into this coun- 
try, since they could no doubt visit many 
small flowers not frequented by the hive 
bees we now have, and whose nectar is, 
therefore, wasted; but very likely they 
might not withstand the severe winters of 
the North unless furnished with such extra 
protection as would be afforded by quite 
warm cellars or special repositories. 
Of the smallest honeybees in the world 
the same writer says: 
THE TINY EAST-INDIAN HONEYBEE. 
(Apis florea, Fab.) 
This bee, also a native of East India, is 
the smallest known species of the genus. Tt 
builds in the open air, attaching a single 
comb to a twig of a shrub or small tree. 
This comb is only about the size of a man’s 
