CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 365 



pollen in some subterranean mouse-nest or in a stump, and 

 the young hatching, gradually eat the pollen, and when it 

 is exhausted and they are fully fed, they spin an oval cylin- 

 drical cocoon ; the first brood are workers, the second males 

 and females. The partly hexagonal cells of the stingtess 

 bees of the tropics (Melipona) are built by the bees, while 

 the hexagonal cells of the honey-bee are made by the bees 

 from wax secreted by minute subcutaneous glands in the 

 abdomen. Though the cells are hexagonal, they are not 

 built with mathematical exactitude, the sides not always 

 being of the same length and thickness. 



The cells made for the young or larval drones are larger 

 than those of the workers, and the single queen cell is large 

 and irregularly slipper-shaped. Drone eggs are supposed by 

 Dzierzon and Siebold not to be fertilized, and that the queen 

 bee is the only animal which can produce either sex at will. 

 Certain worker-eggs have been known to transform into 

 queen bees. On the other hand, worker-bees may lay 

 drone eggs. The maximum longevity of a worker is eight 

 months, while some queens have been known to live five 

 years. The latter will often, under favorable circum- 

 stances, lay from 2000 to 3000 eggs a day. The first brood 

 of workers live about six weeks in summer, and are suc- 

 ceeded by a second brood. 



CLASS VI. INSECTA. 



A distinct head, thorax, and abdomen; three pairs of legs; breathing 

 ly trachea; usually two pairs of wings; usually with a metamorphosis, 

 which is either incomplete or complete, 



SERIES I. Ametabola, or with an incomplete metamorphosis. 



Order 1. Tliysamira. Wingless, minute, with a spring; or ab- 

 domen ending in a pair of caudal stylets; usually no 

 compound eyes; no metamorphosis (Podura, Campodea, 

 Lepisma). 



Order 2. Dermaptera, Body flat ; the abdomen ending in a 

 forceps; fore-wings small, elytra-like; hind-wings ample, 

 folded under the first pair (Forticula). 



