HYMENOPTERA 



271 



grown, make strong, brown, silken cocoons, in which they change 

 to pupae. These cocoons are strengthened with wax by the queens, 



and are used for storing 

 honey, after the young 

 emerge. The first broods 

 are all workers, and af- 

 ter their appearance the 

 queen has nothing more 

 to do but lay her eggs. 

 Later in the season the 

 males and other queens 

 appear, all living together 

 in the same nest. In the 



a 



FIG. 432. Bumble-bees 



a, worker ; b, 



queen, or fertile female, 

 and Kellogg) 



(After Jordan 



fall the young queens 

 crawl away to a suitable 

 hibernating place, and in 

 the spring start new^ colonies, in the manner previously described. 

 Honey-bees. Probably no other insect is of quite as much human 

 interest as the honey-bee. Apiculture is a well-developed art, its 

 literature is extensive, and its devotees have well-organized associ- 

 ations. The honey-bee was 

 brought from Europe by 

 the early settlers of this 

 country, and swarms have 

 escaped, which have become 

 the wild bees now found in 

 hollow trees. There are 

 three forms in every hive, 

 - the queen, the drones, or 

 males, and the workers, 

 which are imperfectly devel- 

 oped females. The workers 

 are the common forms with 

 which we are familiar, and which do all the work of the colony. The 

 drones are larger than the workers, are reared in larger cells, and are 

 blunter and broader in shape. They are relatively few in number, 

 and occur only in the early summer, during the swarming season, 

 after which they are expelled from the nest or killed by the workers. 



FIG. 433. The honey-bee (Apis mellifica) 

 A, queen; B, drone; C, worker. (After Kellogg) 



