ANIMAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL LIFE 



159 



reproduction. The production of new individuals is the 

 sole business of the fertile males and females ; the workers 

 build the nest and collect food, and the soldiers protect the 

 community from the attacks of marauding insects. The 

 egg-laying queen grows to monstrous size, being sometimes 



- 



FIG. 93. Termites, a, queen ; 6, male ; c, worker ; d, soldier. 



five or six inches long, while the other individuals of the 

 community are not more than half or three quarters of 

 an inch long. The great size of the queen is due to the 

 enormous number of eggs in her body. 



The bumble-bees live in communities, but their social 

 arrangements are very simple ones compared with those of 

 the honey-bee. There is, in fact, among the bees a series 

 of gradations from solitary to communal life. The inter- 

 esting little green carpenter-bees live a truly solitary life. 

 Each female bores out the pith from five or six inches of 

 an elder branch or raspberry cane, and divides this space 

 into a few cells by means of transverse partitions (Fig. 94). 

 In each cell she lays an egg, and puts with it enough food 

 flower pollen to last the grub or larva through its life. 



