2077.5 Solega Knowledge of Bee Natural History
Honeybees are plentiful in the B. R. Hills , and the Solega readily exploit this
resource during particular times of the year. During the months from March to July,
honeybees from the lowlands migrate into highland forest areas to take advantage of
the seasonal fl owering of large rainforest trees. It is also during this time that the
Solega start to be keenly aware of the presence of bees in their environment, fre-
quently looking up at trees to look for hives , and exchanging information on the
movements of bee colonies in the neighbouring forest.
7.5.1 Types of Honeybees
The Solega recognize and name four types of bees (see Fig. 2.5 ). The four types of
je: nu in Solega are hejje:nu ( Apis dorsata ), t(h)uḍuve je:nu ( Apis cerana ), kaḍḍi
je:nu ( Apis fl orea ) and nesari je:nu ( Trigona iridipennis ). There is said to be a ‘kin-
ship’ relation between the different bee species, and as far as I know, this is the only
example in Solega of natural kinds being regarded as kin to one another. This phe-
nomenon is further described in Excursus 7.2 (see below), but briefl y, it is probably
a ‘just-so’ story to explain why the various bee species do not visit each other’s
hives. The term je:nu , as applied to the insect, differs markedly from the western
biological concept ‘bee’, being used by the Solega to refer to only those bee species
from which honey is harvested. Many other species of solitary bee are to be found
in BRT, including large carpenter bees and the colourful blue-banded bee, Amegilla
sp. These organisms are unanimously labelled dumbi , a category whose prototypi-
cal forms are large beetles. In addition to the four main ‘ subgeneric ’ categories of
honeybee, the Solega name what can only be described as two types of ‘varietals’—
ko:ḷi je:nu and kenje:nu. The former is a type of kaḍḍi je:nu , and is so named
because its hives are found closer to the ground. The latter is a type of tuḍuve je:nu ,
and the special name refers to the reddish colour of these bees.
The Solega honeybee taxonomy presented here shows many deviations from
Berlin ’s predictions. First, the Solega ‘ generic ’ taxon je: nu does not exactly over-
lap with either the biological genus Apis (as the stingless Trigona are also
included in the former category), or with the English^6 label ‘bee’ (as solitary and
carpenter bees are excluded). Second, there are four distinct ‘ subgeneric ’ bino-
mial labels for the four honeybee species, which is at odds with the fact that as
far as honey is concerned, the Solega are very much ‘gatherers’ and not ‘ beekeepers ’.
(^6) Species such as the blue-banded bee are defi nitely called ‘bees’ in non-technical English—pho-
tographs from the websites of amateur photographers often label Amegilla sp. simply as “blue
bee”. Several wasps are also frequently labeled as “bee” on these websites, showing that (a) the
photographers are usually not trained biologists, and (b) the semantic ranges of the English and
scientifi c ‘bee’ are quite different.
7.5 Solega Knowledge of Bee Natural History