Dear Sir

Accept my warmest thanks for your kind present of combs and workers of apis testacea.¹ I have examined them carefully and with the greatest interest   The cells appear precisely the same as those of A. mellifica with this important difference—the breeding cells are one-fourth deeper than those of A mellifica, proving that the insect is one-fourth longer in the body when it arrives at maturity. It is very remarkable that an insect so much larger than the common bee should build cells of no greater diameter, and satisfies me that I am right in believing A. Ligustica to be a larger bee than A mellifica although it makes cells of the same diameter

What an immense comb yours must have been! Could you ascertain by any means if A testacea is a hive bee? If so I believe it would be invaluable in this country. Its very large wings augur enormous powers of flight and its capacity for honey-gathering is I should think, immense. I really cannot get it out of my head and shall not rest until I have attempted by some means to obtain a living colony.

With regard to living bees from central Africa, I see no very great difficulty in the matter; if the gentleman you mention² would attempt it I should be happy to give instructions pay expenses of freight &c and if successful and a new species would gladly present the sender with £10 or £20 according to their value, although I can scarcely think they would turn out the extraordinary honey-gatherers which I fancy A testacea to be

One thing appears remarkable, and that is that the melting-point of the wax of A testacea seems lower than that of A. mellifica

Again thanking you most sincerely I am | My dear Sir | Yours very truly | T W Woodbury

C. Darwin Esq

P.S.— The bees of Jamaica are I believe A mellifa and I doubt not their combs are the same as ours³