255 SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 



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

 placed and in which the young undergo their metamor- 

 phosis. 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 



FIG. 77. Sand-wasp (Sphex). 



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 w r orker, 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. 



