vn] THE SOCIAL-BEES 101 



perfect insect, and that the reproductive organs of 

 the insect are functional. It is not known with 

 certainty whether the "pap" or "jelly' supplied at 

 the first to workers is of exactly the same chemical 

 character as that supplied to a "queen." 



Drones are raised in cells of the same shape, but 

 of rather larger size than those employed for workers. 

 There is no doubt that the majority of drones issue 

 from eggs from which the "queen" has withheld the 

 fertilising male element stored within her body ; but 

 it has not been proved that they cannot also be pro- 

 duced from fertilised eggs. In cases of hybridisation 

 the drones, as a rule, have all the characteristics of 

 the race to which the "queen" belongs: they appear 

 uninfluenced by the drone with which she was mated. 

 Drone-larvae are said to receive rather more " pap " 

 than do worker-larvae ; and their development occu- 

 pies three or four days longer. The drones all die or 

 are killed by the workers before the winter begins. 

 The lower portions of the combs are, as a rule, alone 

 employed for brood purposes ; the cells immediately 

 above and to the sides of the brood contain pollen, 

 the upper being reserved for storage of honey. It is 

 these great stores of food which enable a "stock" of 

 bees, alone of the insects with which we are here 

 concerned, to continue through the winter. In a 

 healthy hive thousands of workers, as well as their 

 "queen," live in a more or less torpid condition 



