548 
ITALIAN BEES 
While the presence of three yellow bands 
has for many years been supposed to be an 
absolute test of purity, a recent work by 
Prof. Wilmon Newell, then of College Sta¬ 
tion, Texas, shows that this may not be 
entirely correct. But reference to this is 
made under head of Dzierzon Theory, sub¬ 
head “Recent Evidence in Proof of Dzier¬ 
zon Theory.” 
Every worker bee, whether black or 
Italian, has a body composed of six tubes, 
or segments, one sliding into the other, 
telescope fashion. When the bee is full of 
honey these segments slide out, and the 
abdomen is elongated considerably beyond 
colored down, J, K, L, M, one on each of 
the four middle rings of the body but none 
on the first and none on the last. These 
bands of down are very bright on young 
bees, but may be so worn oft as to be 
almost or entirely wanting on an old bee, 
especially on those that have been in the 
habit of robbing very much. This is the 
explanation of the glossy blackness of rob¬ 
bers often seen dodging about the hives. 
Perhaps squeezing thru small crevices has 
thus worn oft the down, or it may be that 
pushing thru dense masses of bees has 
something to do with it. Such shiny black 
bees are often seen in great numbers, in 
the tips of the wings, which are ordinarily 
about the length of the body. Sometimes 
one sees bees swollen with dysentery 
spreading the rings to their fullest extent, 
and in that condition they sometimes would 
be called queens by an inexperienced per¬ 
son. 
On the contrary, in the fall when the bee 
is preparing for its winter nap, its abdo¬ 
men is so much drawn up that it scarcely 
seems like the same insect. 
The engraving shows the abdomen of the 
bee detached from the body, that one may 
get a full view of the bands or markings 
that distinguish the Italians from our black 
bees. It is important to observg par¬ 
ticularly that all honeybees, black as 
well as Italian, have four bands of bright- 
stocks that have been nearly suffocated by 
being confined to their hives in shipping, or 
at other times. 
These bands of down differ in shades of 
color from nearly pure white to a rich 
orange or to a brown, many times, and this 
is the case with the black bees as well as 
with the Italian. Under a common lens 
the bands are simply fine soft hair, or fur, 
and it is this principally which gives the 
light-colored Italians their handsome ap¬ 
pearance. One may have noticed the pro¬ 
geny of some particular queen when they 
first came out to play, and pronounced 
them the handsomest bees he ever saw; but 
a few weeks after they would be no better 
looking than the rest of the b6 ! es. This is 
simply because they had worn off their 
