HYMENOPTERA. 19 1 



ally of half -decayed wood, which they chew into a kind of 

 paper. Inside are the cells in which the eggs are placed 

 and in which the young undergo their metamorphosis. 

 Males and workers die in the autumn, but the females live 

 through the winter and start new colonies in the spring. 



Among the bees the honey-bees occupy the first place from 

 their value as honey-storers. Indeed, so great is their value 

 that hundreds of books and dozens of journals have been 

 published dealing wholly with them. In each colony there 

 are males (drones), females (queens), and workers, the 

 latter imperfectly developed females. Soon all the drones 

 are killed, and all the queens except one, and her sole duty 

 is to lay eggs. If the queen be lost, the workers can take a 

 larva that would otherwise develop into a worker, and by 

 different food convert it into a queen. Wax is a secretion 

 of the bee, honey is the nectar obtained by the bees from 

 flowers, while the bee-bread is the pollen of flowers. 



