Fig. 327.— Swiss hiTC.

as shapes used in different countries are very various. We give examples. Figs. 325, 326, 328, 329.

The site, that is, the place where hives stand, is not a matter oi indifference. It is generally supposed that bees ought to be established in a place fully exposed to the sun, and to the greatest heat of the day. This is a mistake. M. de Frariere, in his work on bees and bee-keeping, recommends the hives to be placed under trees, in such a way that they may be kept in the shade. Fig. 330 shows the way in which M. de Frariere recommends hives to be arranged.

Dr. Monin, author of an interesting monograph of the bee, published in 1866, after treating of the different arrangements which

353 HYMENOPTERA.

have been recommended for hives, concludes thus:— " It is to satisfy all these requirements that experienced bee-keepers so much recommend for the hives an exposure to the ten o'clock sun; that is to say, that they should be turned in such a manner that the sun may shine on their entrances when it has already attained a certain height above the horizon, and sufficiently warmed the surrounding air for the bees, which the brightness of its rays has tempted forth, not to be seized

Fig. 328. — Polish hive.

ith cold and numbed before they have been able to return home "'^ again. In the month of March a gathering of w^ax is made by cutting away the lower part of the hives, where the cakes have grown old. The principal honey harvest takes place towards the end of May, June, or July, according to the place the hives are in. A larger or smaller gathering takes place according to the quantity of honey ready, and the state of the season. As the bees will not see the violation of their domicile and thett of their winter provisions without anger, to get possession of the honeycomb with which the hive is filled, you must put these irritable insects into such a state that they are unable to injure you. They can be rendered peaceable oy

" Physiologic de V Abeille, siiivie de I'art de soigner et d'exploiter les Abeilles d'apres une methode simple et facile," p. 94. Paris, 1866. 69

354 thb: insect world.

smoking them. The smoke is forced into the hive with the assis tance of a pair of bellows, the arrangement of which is shown in

Fig. 331. If the fumigation is prolonged, the bees are very soon heard to beat their wings in a peculiar manner; they are then in what is called in French retatdebruisscment, or the roaring state. When they stand up on their hind legs and agitate their wings, you can do

Fig. 329. — Garden hive.

with them almost anything you like — cut away the honeycomb, abstract the eggs, or take out the honey — without their troubling themselves about it. But this state of things must not last too long, or you may suffocate your bees. It is a sort of anaesthesis into which the bees have been thrown; and, as with men, this must not be prolonged.

Some bee-keepers, in order to collect the honey harvest, suftbcate their bees by burning sulphur matches. This is a bad practice. *' Those authors who recommend us to suffocate the bees,'' says M. Hamet, "under the pretext that their colonies will become too

numerous, and who add, ' You cannot eat beef without killing the ox,' are more stupid than the animal they have chosen for their corn-

Fig. 330. — Hives under the shade of trees.

parison." A hive often produces from twelve to twenty pounds of honey each year, and a proportional quantity of wax. It may, then,

Fig. 331. — Bellows used to stupefy Bees.

imish to the bee-keeper an important revenue, especially as the rearing of bees gives scarcely any trouble, and involves scarcely any ibour, as it is only necessary to select a spot with a proper exposure [and well supplied with flowers.

We possess in Europe two species or races of bees — the Common

Fig. 330. — Hives under the shade of trees.

Fig. 331. — Bellows used to stupefy Bees.

Bee {Apis melUficd)^ and the Ligurian Bee {Apis ligustica)^ whose abdomen is tawny, with the rings bordered with black. It is this latter species of which Virgil sang, and which is found in Italy and Greece. It has been remarked that the Ligurian bee pierces the calyces, at their bases, of those flowers which are too long for it to penetrate into easily, and thus gets possession of the honey, whilst the common bees pass these flowers over. This observation proves that the former is the more intelligent of the two races. In Egypt a bee is reared called the Banded Bee {Apis fasciatd).

Ten or twelve other species of honey-bees exist in Senegal, the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, East Indies at Timor {Apis Feronii), &c. The European bee has been acclimatised in America, but it soon returns to its wild state, as indeed do all our domestic animals when transported to the other hemisphere. At the Cape of Good Hope the Hottentots seek greedily after the nests of wild bees, a bird called the Indicator guiding them in this chase. This bird is observed flitting about from tree to tree, making a little significant cry. They have only then to follow this bird-informer, for it will not be long in stopping before some hollow tree which contains a nest of bees. The Hottentots always acknowledge its services by leaving it a part of the booty.

Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, tells us, in his work entitled " The Prairie," how the bee-hunters in America discover the wild hives. They place on a plank, covered with white paint still moist, a piece of bread covered with sugar or honey. The bees, in plundering this bread, get some of the paint on their bodies, and are then more easily tracked when they return to their hives. In North America they are, as it were, the harbingers of civilisation. When the Indians perceive a swarm trying to establish themselves in the soli-tudes of their forests, they say to one another, "The white man is approaching; he will soon be here." True pioneers of civilisation,these insects seem to announce to the forests and deserts of the New World that the reign of Nature has passed away, and that now the social state has begun to play its part — a part that will never end.

The bees peculiar to South America have no sting: these are the Meliponas. These (Fig, 332) are more compactly formed than our bees, have a more hairy body, and are smaller in size. Very numerous in the virgin forests, they make their nests in the hollows of trees. The wax produced by them is brown, and of an indifferent quality. Under thick leaves of wax are found cakes, with hexagonal cells, containing the males, females, and neuters. The cells of the larvae are closed by the workers, and the larvae spin themselves a

HYMENOPTERA. 3 5 J?

cocoon inside. All around the cradles are large round cells, entirely different in form, from the cradles, in which the honey is stored. It is probable that the males, the workers, and the females, live together in great harmony, and even that there is in each nest more than one female, for the absence of the sting must prevent any combats. If a few cakes of the MeliponaJs honeycomb are moved into the hollow of a tree, they always found there a new colony. We may conclude from this that the pj workers procure for themselves females whenever a species of Meiipona. they want them by means of a special sort of food. The savage inhabitants of the American forests collect this honey; but, with the carelessness of uncivilised man, they at the same time destroy the nests of these precious insects. They have now begun to domesticate certain species of Me/iponas, by introducing them into earthen pots or wooden cases. These insects have been brought to Europe, but they have always perished in the first cold weather. During the summer of 1863 there was, in the Museum of Natural History of Paris, a nest of Meiipona sciitellaris from Brazil, but it did not prosper.

The Humble or Bumble Bees.

If in the month of March one passes through the fields, which are beginning to get green, or through the woods, still deprived of their leaves, there may be seen, hovering hither and thither, great hairy insects, resembling gigantic bees. These are the females of a species of bee, called by the French " bourdons,'^ from the buzzing noise they produce; and by us "humble bees," probably from their German name "hummel," given for the same reason. These females have been awakened by the spring sun. They examine the cavities of stones, the heaps of moss, and the holes in banks, &c., seeking for a suitable spot to construct a nest for their progeny.

The humble bees are of the same family as the bees, whom they resemble in their organisation. Like them, they are divided into males, females, and neuters, or workers. But their companies only last a year. At the end of autumn the whole population has become extinct, with the exception of the pregnant females, which pass the winter in a state of torpor at the bottom of some hole, where they wait till the spring to perpetuate their race. Their societies comprise generally only a small number of individuals, from fifty to three hundred. They are of peaceful habits, their ephemeral existence beginning and ending with the flower season.

The humble bees are known by their great size, their short, robust body, encircled by bands of very bright colours, and by the noise they make in flying. Their hind legs are armed with two spurs. The females and the workers have the same organisation for plundering flowers as the bees have: they have similar trunks, and their legs are fitted with brushes and baskets for gathering pollen. The males (Fig. 333), like the males of hive bees, have no sting. The greater number dwell underground; others make their nests on the surface of the soil, in the cracks of walls, in heaps of stones, &ic. The former establish themselves in cavities situated as far as half a yard underground, and approached by a long narrow fig- 333- -Male Humble Bee gallery. It is almost always a solitary female who has been the architect of the nest. She cleans out the cavity she has chosen, makes it as smooth as possible, and lines it with leaves and moss, to embellish the subterranean house in which she is to pass nearly all her existence.

The Moss Humble Bee {Bombns muscorufn), called also the Carding See, chooses an excavation of very little depth in which to make its nest, or else itself undertakes the hollowing out of a hole in the ground. It covers this with a dome of moss or dry herbs. But it does not fly when transporting the moss, it drags it along the ground, with its back turned towards the nest. Having seized a packet of the moss, it sets to work to draw out the bits with its mandibles, and then pushing them under its body, throws them in the direction of the nest by a sort of kick from its hind legs. Sometimes, towards the end of the season, many humble bees are to be seen working in line. The first seizes the moss, and after having carded it, passes it under its body, and throws it to the second, which throws it on to the third, and so on, up to the nest. When the materials are ready, the insect makes use of them to manufacture a sort of hemispherical lid, or covering, resembling felt, which shuts the nest in, and is lined with wax. If you lift up this covering, or small dome, which it is not dangerous to do, for humble bees are not very aggressive, you find beneath it a nest composed of a coarse comb.

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