Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-11-11
GIANT PHILIPPINE BEES.
Now NOlh Stu.

There is one race inhabiting tht
Philippines which will be welcome
addition to American citizenship and
will receive every facility and induce
ment to emisrate to the United States
and engage in the skilled labor in
which it has no peer. This is the
giant East Indian honey bee, whose
immense capacity for making honey
and wax has interested the Department
of Agriculture in the consideration of
an early effort to introduce it into the
United States. 70 science, this bee is
known as apis dOrsaid. 1t is common
throughout the tropical regions of the
East, and in the Philippine islands the
very largest variety of the species is
found. 1t is nearly one-half larger
than the American native honey bee,
and builds comb heavy with wax and
honey, five or six times as large as
those found in American orchards and
forests.
The question of acclimatizing these
inhabitants of the Philippines in the
colder latitudes of America is not dis
couraging. The giant bees arc found
in the mountain regions all through
India, and have been seen busilv at
work in attitudes Of 5000 feet. In the
Philippine islands their colonies are
most numerous in the mountains, as
the unceasing quest Of the natives for
their honeycombs has driven them
from the unprotected fiatlands of the
coast TO the less thiclly inhabited and
more heavily wooden mountain re-
gions. The Filipinos find their daily
bread y rather easy proposition, but
they are very fond of honey on the
staff OF lie. There is also large de.
mand for wax for Use in dyeing.
The big bees build their hives on
tall forest trees or on the overhansing
lcdges of cliffs. When unlisturbed,
branch swarms build near the parent
colony, so that in few years an i'm
mense bee settlement often grows up
in the forest. The bees build Il comb
five or six feet long, four feet wide,
and from seven-eighths to l inches
in thickness. The largest combs OF
American honey bees are not of more
than one-ffth these dimensions. In
appearance the giant bee is a smoky
glittering, iridesccnt black wasp-like
figure, with orange bands encircling its
body. There have been reports that
This bee is most ferocious, and, on ac-
count OF its great size, extremely dam
gerous, but Professor Frank Benton,
of the Department of Agriculture, has
seen and handled them in their jungle
haunts, aud he tells diflerent story.
They are busy and persevering work,
ers, according to Professor Benton's
account, that they have lost dexterity
with their singing apparatus, and,
though they may alight full OF wrath
and with evil intent, upon human
hand or neck, they do not handle their
offensive weapon with skill, and it
takes them 90 or so seconds to get
their string in working order. They
are quiet rs compared with American
bees.
Petitions have been coming into the
Department OF Agriculture for years
asking that the government introduce
these giant bees into the United States.
No attempt at bringing them here has
ever been successful, Professor Benton
tried to bring to the United States o
swarm of these honeymaEers which he
captured in the jungle. While he was
sick in bed, on his way home, no one
else on the vessel would attend them,
and they all died.