CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE 



BEES 



1. BEES are closely related to the digger wasps, and Origin and 

 appear to have been evolved from them. So close is the sn ipsof bees 

 resemblance, in certain cases, that it is difficult at first to 



see any distinction. All bees, however, have at least 

 some plumed or featherlike hairs, while the hairs of the 

 wasps are simple. Plumed or branched hairs occur also 

 among the ants, but these are not likely to be confused 

 with bees. The digger wasps capture insects of various 

 kinds, and store them in their nests as food for the 

 young. The bees, on the other hand, are vegetarians, 

 and their maggotlike young feed on a mixture of honey 

 and pollen. Certain kinds of bees are parasitic in the 

 nests of others ; these gather no pollen, but, depositing 

 their eggs in the cells of industrious species, cause the 

 latter unwittingly to support their offspring at the ex- 

 pense of their own. These parasitic bees are often 

 gaily colored, sometimes resembling wasps, and are 

 without the scopa or arrangement of pollen-collecting 

 hairs seen in other species. Although they thus live 

 at the expense of their neighbors, they prosper less 

 than the working kinds, and are always relatively 

 scarce. Indeed, were they to become excessively nu- 

 merous, both they and their hosts would perish to- 

 gether, as would a human society, the majority of 

 whose members got their living by stealing. 



2. We do not know when the first bees came into Fossil bees 

 existence, but very well-preserved -examples, showing 



the characteristic mouth parts, are found in Baltic 

 amber, 1 which is probably about two million years old. 



1 Amber is a fossil resin, which when flowing from the trees entrapped 

 and inclosed great numbers of insects and other small creatures. These 

 are now preserved with all their most delicate parts, resembling specimens 

 mounted in Canada balsam for the microscope. 



293 



