This Species Is Entirely
Unlike A Bee In All Its Habits.
It is a bright tinsel-green
color, and the size of a large walnut, but shaped like the humble
bees of England.
The month is armed with a very powerful pair of
mandibles, and the tail with a sting even larger and more
venomous than that of the hornet. These carpenter bees are
exceedingly destructive, as they bore holes in beams and posts,
in which they lay their eggs, the larvae of which when hatched
greedily feed upon the timber.
The honey bees are of four very distinct varieties, each of which
forms its nest on a different principle. The largest and most
extensive honey-maker is the "bambera". This is nearly as large
as a hornet, and it forms its nest upon the bough of a tree, from
which it lines like a Cheshire cheese, being about the same
thickness, but five or six inches greater in diameter. The honey
of this bee is not so much esteemed as that from the smaller
varieties, as the flavor partakes too strongly of the particular
flower which the bee has frequented; thus in different seasons
the honey varies in flavor, and is sometimes so highly aperient
that it must be used with much caution. This property is of
course derived from the flower which the bee prefers at that
particular season. The wax of the comb is the purest and whitest
of any kind produced in Ceylon. So partial are these bees to
particular flowers that they migrate from place to place at
different periods in quest of flowers which are then in bloom.
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