The Bees

The Bees, Butterflies & Moths

One of my favorite past times in school was collecting Butterflies. Yes, we use to roam around with a bush in our hands ready to slaughter incoming butterflies from the D Div up towards the teacher's quarters to the C Div and B Div fields. What we did with these innocent creatures after slaughtering them. We use to wax a paper fold it into two. Place one side of the butterflies wings in such a way to exactly look the way it normally is. We would then close the fold carefully without the wings moving. Then rub with pressure along the area's where the wing was placed. Once done, on opening it the colors of the back wing and the front wing would now be preserved on this wax paper. To further protect it, cello tape would be then put on it so that the colors don't get rubbed away. And your left with a blank transparent wings of a butterfly.

Twany Coster / Plain Tiger / Grey Pansy / Lemon Pansy

Common Jezebel / Blue Tiger / Blue Pansy / Lime

Blue Tiger / Common Four Ring / Common Blue Bottle / Angled Castor

Common Sailor / Common Mormon / Painted Lady / Common Evening Brown

@ Copyrights Reserved Kishen Das kishen.das@gxs.com

Butterfly India
http://www.geocities.com/kishan_nie/photos/photos.html

Dark Glass Blue / Lemon Pansy / Striped Tiger (Wrongly called Viceroy in School)

Wasp / Common Leopard / Bee Hawk Moth

Common Grass Yellow / Blue Tiger / Blue Tiger

Plain Tiger ( Wrongly called Monarch in School )

The Jungle Look
http://www.thejunglelook.com/

Photos By Sudir Shivaram
@ All Rights Reserved

Honey Bees

We had in School three or four bee hives which honey used to be extracted from. Sunil Noronha and Noel D'Sa were the two guys who frequently extracted the honey from the comb's with Brother Morrow's supervision during the 1977-78, I use to get a couple of bottle's of honey from them too. Was good to put on the bread, use to get tired of squeezing butter out of a slice of bread for breakfast.

There were three types of bee's to be found in Abu. The Leaf Bees which use to build their hives on trees and bushes. This was a fairly small size bee. The other was the box bee's which most bee center's kept and was medium in size. The third type of bees which were found was the rock bees. These guys were huge and deep orange black in color. Their hives use to be found in Rock caves on high buildings. I can remember one time Noel D'Sa came from Golden Horn after hitting a rock bee hive on the way. This guy had stings all over his face and body, had come jogging all the way back from Golden Horn it was hard to stop the bees has they chased them almost to the school.

In a beehive you have a Queen bee, the drone's and the worker female bees. Everything is revolved around the queen bee. Once another Queen is born you will find the bee hive will split into two. One part of it will swam away into another location with the new queen. Honey comb of MOLOFICE species. Molofice is the world famous species of Italy. Several variety of honey is produced. for e.g.. Jamun Honey, Harada Honey, Karvi Honey, Brasscia (mustard and Toria), Lychee, Eucalyptus, Karanj and Sunflower etc. Each variety has a different taste.

South Africa is home to two sub-species of honeybees. Apis mellifera (A.m.) scuttelata, the African bee, also known as "the killer bee," and the world renowned A.m. capensis. The unique quality for which capensis is known is the ability of their unfertilized laying workers to lay fertilized eggs, without having been mated, and thus reproduce a queen bee.

Shown below are pictures of the different type of bee hives, honey extractor and the inside of a bee hive at a demonstration Bee Hive outlet.

Click on the thumbnail images for larger ones