Fritz Müller has recorded a singular case bearing on the instinct of these social Insects: he says that a nest of a small _Trigona_ was built in a hollow tree, and that as a consequence of the irregularity of the hole the bees were obliged to give a very irregular shape to their combs of honey. These bees were captured and put in a spacious box (presumably together with the irregular comb, but this he unfortunately does not mention): after a year, "when perhaps not a single bee survived of those which had come from the canella tree," they still continued to build irregular combs, though quite regular combs were built by several other communities of the same species that he had kept. These bees, he also tells us, do not use pure wax for the construction of their combs, but mix it with resin or gum that gives it a peculiar odour and appearance. He captured two communities of a common _Melipona_, one of which had the combs made of dark reddish brown, the other of pale yellowish brown, wax, and in captivity in a distant locality each of the two communities continued to form its comb in the same way, thus showing the continuity that prevails in these cases as long as circumstances permit. Müller thinks this due to imitation, but it seems at least as probable that it is due to perception of the properties of the nest. The nest has a certain colour that the worker-bee matches. Several species of the _Melipona_ and _Trigona_ were imported from Brazil to France, and kept there for some time in captivity by M. Drory. Girard has published[37] some details as to these colonies, and is of opinion that some of them indicate an intelligence or instinct superior to that of the honey-bee. The queen-bee of _M. scutellaris_ seems to display more intelligence than the corresponding sex of _A. mellifica_. The mode of feeding the larvae apparently differs from that of _A. mellifica_, a provision of pollen being first placed in the cell, then some honey; when {65}sufficient food for the whole consumption of a larva is accumulated the queen deposits an egg in the cell, which is at once completely closed by the worker. The interior of the abode of these bees is quite dark, only a very small orifice being left, and in this a sentinel is constantly on the alert. The same writer states that _Trigona crassipes_ has the very peculiar habit of always locating its brood-comb in the nest of a species of _Termes_.