Article beginning on page 197.
Psyche 3:197, 1880.

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F( )REIGN HONEY BEES.
BY ALBERT JOHN COOK, LANSING, MICH.
The Cyprian Iwea were first imported
isolated island home, strong race pcctili- from C.yprus into Europe by Count arities. He also believes that the Italians Kolowrat of Hroby and Herr Cori of
are the offspring of the Cypi-hns.
Bruex, Bohemia, and were pronounced The Cyprian bees closely resemble the by these and other experts in apiculture, Italifi~s, except that the workers are a as superior to both the Oennaii, and little smaller, and more yellow on the Italian races. In the winter of 1879- ventral side of their abdomens. The 80, Messrs. A. D. Jones, of Breton, drones and qneena can hardly be distin- Ontario, Canada, who has made a for-
guished froin hose of the Ligurian or Itid- tune as a bee keeper, and Prank Benton,
ian race, except that they arp more uui- a graduate of the Michigan Agricultural
form, which we should expect, owing to
College,
and one of the best-read bee the close in and in breeding necessitated keepers of the world (who reads regular- by the limited territory of the island.
ly the agricultural periodicals of Ger- The common opinion of those who have many,
France, Italy and England, as tried these bees is, that they are more well as those of our own country), set prolific and active than even the Italians. sail for Asia, that they might establish This is as we should expect, as LLsur- an apiary in Cyprus, and introduce the viva1 of the fittest " would work power- Cyprian and Syrian bees directly from
fully to improve bees on so restricted an their native habitats into America.
Mr. area, and where the seasons are often, Jones returned in mid-summer of 1880, like that of 1880, cxceediiagiy dry. with about three hundred colonies of The workers of the Syrian race are Cyprian and Holy-Land bees, while Mr. very plainly banded, because of the gray Benton remained in Cyprus fco ~iiperiu- fuzz on each ring, otherwise they closely tend a large apiay at Larnaca, and ship resemble the Italians. The queens are
queens from the island to Enrol~e and very obviously banded with dark and America. yellow, and are remarkably uniform. The bees, both from Cyprus and Syria, The drones are dark, and covered with are, like the Italian race, banded with
a heavy gray fuzz. Thy resemble our
yellow, and seem more like the Italian common black drones more than they do bees than they do like the mu& more either those of the Italians or Cypriaus. yellow Egyptian bee. In temperament These bees, natives of an arid barren and habits too they are much like the region, have also felt the severe hand of well known Italians.
competition, and redly promise to be a
Mr. Benton, who is a close, accurate
very valuable acquisition to the apiaries student of science, thinks that the Cyp- of the United States.
rian bees were probably introduced from
Not content -with the valuable service
Palestine many years -possibly ce~itu-
thtis far rendered, Mr. Benton has, the
ries- ago, and have developed, in their
present. winter, visited Ceylon. Farther



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PSYCHE.
India, the Philippine Islands, and Java, hoping to add still further to the valuable importations of exotic bees. He took
Cyprian and Holy-Land bees along, in
our improved hives, and left some at each place of lauding. He has been received
with marked favor by the several govern- mental authorities.
At Ceylon, Mr. Benton secured the
diminutive Apis inclica. The bodies of
the workers are only 1 em. long; the
thorax is brown, the shield or crescent
between the wings is large ancl yellow ; the abdomen, beneath, is yellow, and
above is beautifully handed throughout
its entire length with brown and yellow. These bees are very little inclined to sting, ancl when they do sting the effect is slight, otving to the very small siz2 of the sting. The (pens are very large compared
with the workers, are of a ("lark copper color, and seem astonishingly prolific. I have received some of the comb from
Mr. Benton. The small cells, loss than
one-half of a cm. in diameter, give a
dainty appearance to the comb, which
is very ii~teresting.
~hese bees, from their small size,
great beauty, amiable tempers, and the
possibility that they can work on flowers inaccessible to our larger bees, will be received with no little eagerness by
American apiarists.
At the time of Mr. Benton's last let-
ter he had not yet succeeded in procuring the large Apis do~mtc~, which was the
great attraction which led to this labori- ous ancl expensive journey. But he had
learned where they were to be found on
the island of Cevlou and in Java. These
bees suspend their combs vertically to
the limbs of trees, often for a distance of a metre or more. Great stories arc
told of the large amount of honey which
these bees store, and now for the first
time we shall not only get reliable infor- mation of their habits and value, but, if the undertaking is practicable, we shall have them imported to our own American
apiaries. Surely it is something to be
proud of, that it was left for American
enterprise to first introduce these long coveted species into the civilized couu- tries of tlie world.
In ;I paper on Ih'azilian butterflies, rend before the London 1htomologic:d Socie-
ty, 5 June 1878, by Dr. Fritz Miiller,
great prominence is given to the odors of the male butterflies, which the author con- siders as an especial sexual attraction. Some years before the publication of
this paper, in spreading fresh males of
(J(d/1(lry̤ eabuJe, I had been struck
with the delicate violet-& odor which
was emitted, and which was retained, to
some extent. for several (lays. I have
repeatedly observed the same quality
since and always in the males. The
females are not in the smallest degree
fragrant. This is the only species, com- inon with us, which, so far as I am
aware, possesses this attribute, and as
it belongs to a geiltis mainly represented in South American species, it may lw
simply the inheritance of a characteris- tic of use to its congeners in the forests of Brazil and not of any especial service to it in its present habitat.




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