Social Insects. 11 



remain more or less in repose, but when once the location for a 

 permanent dwelling has been finally determined upon, the whole 

 mass will leave as with one impulse and fly swiftly and directly 

 to the new home. With the first swarm that the new colony 

 sends out it is the old or fertile queen that goes with the new 

 swarm, but with the after swarms, which issue in about a week, 

 it is a virgin queen that accompanies. The old colony begins 

 again with the few individuals unable to follow the departing 

 swarm, and which have crept back to the old hive, with those 

 which at the time of swarming were busy in the field, and with 

 those which issue from the yet undeveloped brood. 



It is a popular mistake to suppose that mating takes place 

 during swarming. If a virgin queen goes with the swarm, she 

 subsequently takes the nuptial flight from her new home. As 

 she flies swiftly and strongly, only the strongest and most vigor 

 ous drones are able to mate with her, and there is every oppor 

 tunity for cross-fertilization with drones from some other colony. 

 It has also been noticed that drones have a way of congregating 

 in some particular spot, as though awaiting their chance of thus 

 mating with the queen. 



The more important special Organs. 



The different structures and organs of the Hive Bee are most 

 interesting, but I can allude only to a few of the more striking. 

 The tongue is a very complex organ, fitted for obtaining minute 

 quantities of nectar from the flowers that secrete it but sparingly, 

 or to remove the same substance rapidly when found in abund 

 ance. The figure of the head and appendages thrown on the 

 screen will illustrate this organ in detail. We have here 

 the mandible, mostly used for cutting and moulding the 

 wax, the maxillae with their palpi, the labium and labial palpi, 

 and finally the ligula or true tongue with its spoon-like tip. 

 This is extremely flexible, and consists of a rod or central por 

 tion, nearly surrounded by a sheath which is covered thickly 

 with hairs, which aid, by capillary attraction, in taking up the 

 liquid food. A lapping motion, when the liquid is abundant, 

 causes the liquid to be lodged among the hairs of the tongue, 

 which can be partially drawn into the men turn, and from this 

 point the maxillae above and the labial palpi below unite to form 

 a tube around it, which is closed above the extension of the 



