Article beginning on page 198.
Psyche 3:198, 1880.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/3/3-198.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

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 l~lact2 of landing. 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 cm. long; the
thorax is brown, the shield or crescent
between the wings is large and yellow ;
the abdomen, beneath, is yellow, and
above is beautifully banded 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, owing to the very small sizs of the sting. The queens are very large compared
with the workers, are of a clailc copper color, and seem astonishingly prolific. I have received some of the comb from
Mr. Eenton. The small cell,, loss than
one-half of a em. in diameter, give a
dainty appearance to the comb, which
is very intercstiiig.
These bees, from their small size,
great beauty, amiable tempers, and the
possibility that they can work on flowers inaccessible to oar 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 dorsata, which was the
great attraction which led to this labori- ous and expensive journey. But he had
learned where they were to be found on
the island of Ceylon 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 are
told of the large amount of honey which
these Lees 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 co1111- tries of tlie world.
A FRAGR.ANT BUTTERFLY.
BY MAR1 RhTHER MURTFELDT, KIIiKWOOD, NO. In ;apapcr on Brazilian butterflies, read repeatedly observed the same quality
liefore the London Entomological Socie- sinre ancl always in the males. The ty, 5 June 1878, by Dr. Fritz Miillcr, females are not in the smallest degree great prominence is given to the odors of fragrant. This is the only species, coin- the male butterflies, which the author con- mon with us, which, so far as I am siders as an especial sexual
attraction. aware, possesses this attribute, and as Some years before the publication of it belongs to a geienus mainly represented this paper, in spreading fresh males of in South Americizn species, it may lie OaWd~yc~s enbule, I had been struck simply the inheritance of a characteris- with the delicate violet-like odor which tic of use to its congeners in the forests was emitted, and which was retained, to of Brazil and not of any especial service some extent, for several (lays.
I have to it in its present habitat.




================================================================================