HYMENOPTERA PETIOLATA. 765 



by the abdomen and transferred to the legs before being kneaded into 

 the building material.* Psithyrus lives in the nests of Humble-bees 

 (Bombus), and the several species curiously resemble the species on 

 which they quarter themselves. Meliponci is the Mosquito-bee and 

 very small in size ; it has a stunted form of sting, but does not use it for 

 offence. There seems to be one queen in each nest and the very 

 numerous inhabitants are said to swarm occasionally. Apis mellifica 

 is the Honey-bee (Fig. 493). Here the drones (males), the workers 

 (infertile females) and the queens are structurally different, and form 

 colonies that persist from year to year. New communities arise by 

 swarming. A new queen-bee having been reared, the queen-mother 

 with some adherents quits the hive and establishes a new one. The 

 cell for the royal larva is bigger than that for the larval drones and 

 workers, and the larval queen enjoys a special diet. The drones 

 are said to arise from unfertilized eggs. The queen-bee has a 

 longer abdomen than the worker ; she forms no wax and has no 

 transverse row of hairs on the enlarged first tarsal segment for 

 the gathering of pollen. The male or drone is broader and stouter, 

 with larger eyes which meet above ; and the hind-legs are unmodified 

 for collecting pollen. The Honey-bee has been domesticated for so 

 long a period that many local races have arisen. 



The division of labour which plays such a prominent part in the 

 economy of the higher Hymenoptera reaches the highest pitch 

 amongst the bees. The queen-bee, in the case of Apis mellifica, 

 alone, lays eggs, sometimes at the rate of 3,000 a day ; she and the 

 workers live through the winter, but the drones all perish in the 

 autumn. The drones do no work in the hive ; they arise from 

 unfertilized eggs and are killed in the autumn (slaughter of drones). 

 During the winter the queen-bee and the workers live upon the 

 food stored up in the hive ; when spring returns she deposits eggs, 

 first in the cells of the workers and then of the drones. After a 

 time certain large royal cells are constructed, and in each of 

 these she lays a fertilized egg ; the larvae which proceed from 

 these eggs receive a richer nourishment and become queens. The 

 drones take twenty-four days to develop, the workers twenty, and 

 the queens sixteen. Before the eldest of the royal pupae gives rise 

 to a queen in the imaginal state, the queen mother with a number 

 of the workers leave the hive (first swarm). Thus a new colony 

 arises. The young queen either kills all the other royal larvae and 

 remains in the old hive, or if she is prevented from doing this by the 

 workers and the population is still large enough, she also leaves the old 

 hive with a part of the workers (second swarm or cast) before the appear- 

 ance of a second queen. Soon after the metamorphosis is complete 

 the queen is fertilized by a drone whilst flying in the air. The 

 drone immediately dies, and the queen, which has only been fer- 

 tilized once, can continue to lay fertilized ova for several years. 

 If the wings of the queen are paralysed and she is unable to copulate, 



* Cf. Titania : 



The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, 

 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, 

 And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes. 



A Midsummer Night's Dream, 

 Act III, scene 1, lines 154-156. 



