522 



Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons, 



ments, and no transverse series of comb-like hairs, the planta (Fig. 734), on 

 the under side of the broad first tarsal segment of the hind feet, and no pollen- 

 basket (Fig. 727) on the outer surface of the hind tibia. The drones, males, 

 (Fig. 726), have a heavy broad body excessively hairy on the thorax, and 

 lack pollen-basket, planta, wax-plates, and other special structures of the 

 workers. The workers are smaller than queen or drones, and possess cer- 

 tain special structures or body modifications to enable them to perform cer- 

 tain special functions connected with their performance of the various indus- 

 tries characteristic of the species. These special structures will be described 

 in some detail later when the various special industries are particularly con- 

 sidered. In internal organization the workers differ from the queen in 

 having the ovaries rudimentary (Fig. 728), so that only in exceptional cases 

 can a worker produce fertile eggs. 



In functions the three castes differ as they do in the social wasps and 

 the bumblebees, only more constantly; that is, the queen lays the eggs, never, 

 as with Bombus and the Vespids, doing any food-gathering or nest-building; 



FIG. 729. Honey-bees gathering pollen and nectar. (From life.) 



the males act simply as consorts for the queen, which means that only one 

 of every thousand, perhaps, performs any necessary function at all in the 

 communal economy; the workers build brood- and food-cells, gather, pre- 

 pare, and store food, feed and otherwise care for the young, repair, clean, 

 ventilate, and warm the hive, guard the entrance and repel invaders, feed 

 the queen, control the production of new queens, and distribute the species, 

 founding new communities, by swarming. 



The life-history of a community is as follows: A "swarm" (how and 

 when a swarm is formed will be explained later), consisting of a queen (fertile 

 female) and a number of workers (from two to twenty thousand or more), 



