THE LIGURIAN OR YELLOW ALP BEE.
The Ligurian Bee is a species indigenous to the south of Europe, and has been cultivated in Italy in the same way as the common honey Bee has been in the northern parts of Europe from time immemorial. It is the Apis Ligustica of the naturalist; and though so well known to exist and to have all the honey-producing properties of our own honey Bee, with some other advantages besides, it seems remarkable that it should have remained so long unknown to the apiarians of this country.
The merit of introducing this species is due to Mr. Woodbury, the eminent Devonshire Bee-keeper, who, having made the necessary preliminary inquiries, placed himself in communication with Mons. H. C. Hermann, of Tamin-by-Chur, in the Canton of Grison, Switzerland; and on the 19th of July, 1859, the Ligurian Bee was introduced to England.
In a pamphlet on the subject by M. Hermann we have the following particulars of this insect:—
"The yellow Italian Alp Bee is a mountain insect; it is found between two mountain chains to the right and left of Lombardy and the Rhætian Alps, comprising the whole territory of Tessins, Vetlin, and South-Graubunden. It thrives up to the height of 4500 feet above the level of the sea, and appears to prefer the northern clime to the warmer, for in the south of Italy it is not found. The farther one goes from the Alps, the less handsome they are found—as for example in Nice, until they are entirely lost in lower Italy in the black species. We must therefore look for the original in Switzerland, and we can call them with as much right Apis Helvetica, as the Genoese call them Apis Ligustica. Some learned men have called them Ligurian Bees, but that name has neither historical nor geographical claim, and not one Bee-cultivator of the whole district of the Italian Alp Bee knows what kind of insects Ligurian Bees are. The Alps are their native country; therefore they are called Yellow Alp Bees, or Tame House Bees, in contradistinction to the black European Bees, which we might call common forest Bees, and which, on the slightest touch, fly like lightning into your face.
"The Italian yellow Bee differs from the common black Bee in its longer more slender form, and light chrome yellow colour, with light brimstone-coloured wings, and two orange-red bands, each one-sixth of an inch wide. Working Bees as well as drones have this mark. The drones are further distinguished by the bands being scolloped like the spotted water-serpent, and obtain an astonishing size—almost half as large again as the black drones. The queen has the same marks as the working Bees, but much more conspicuous and lighter; she is much larger than the black queen, and easy to be singled out of the swarm, on account of her remarkable bodily size and light colour.
"The Bees are almost transparent when the sun shines on them.
"This race has nothing in common with the black Bees, which can be instantly seen by their ways and manner of building. The cells of the Italian Bee are considerably deeper and broader than those of the black Bees. Fifteen cells of the Italians are as broad as sixteen cells of the black kind."
Their chief merits in contrast with the black Bees are—1, as they naturally inhabit a region of such elevation as 4500 feet, they are less sensitive to cold than the common Bee; 2, their queens are more prolific; 3, they swarm earlier and more frequently; 4, they are much less apt to sting, and not only so, but unless they are intentionally annoyed or irritated they are not inclined to sting; 5, they are more courageous and active in self-defence, and are particularly disposed to plunder the hives of the common kind; but should the latter attack their hives they fight with great fierceness and adroitness.