THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEE AND THE BEEHIVE 



into three or four parallel galleries, in which they place their 

 broad cells. Between the cells they make partitions formed 

 of fragments of wood cemented together by their saliva. 

 These bees pass the winter in the adult stage, hibernating in 

 the imago condition. Both sexes reappear in the spring, and 

 some species may take two years to complete the cycle of their 

 life history. They are very hairy, and some of the females 

 closely resemble the bumble-bee. The cells are provisioned 

 with pollen, and the bees apparently produce little or no 

 honey. 



If we now turn to the social bees we find three groups. 

 One is known as the mosquito bee, from its very small size. 

 These bees are also sometimes spoken of as stingless bees, 

 though they have a rudimentary sting, which they do not 

 use. Little is known about them, but they form communities 

 consisting of a large number of individuals. We do not cer- 

 tainly know whether these bees are all the product of a single 

 queen or whether there may be more than one egg-producer 

 in each colony, but the evidence seems to show that every 

 colony has its own queen. The nests are rich in honey, and 

 to prevent them from being robbed the workers, who are 

 usually occupied in collecting pollen, also collect clay, with 

 which they build a wall to protect the nest, which is gen- 

 erally placed on a bank or in the trunk of a tree. Every nest 

 is thus completely surrounded with clay. The honey is stored 

 in separate cells or in clusters of cells, each cluster about the 

 size of a pigeon's egg, and these are placed at the bottom of 

 the hive, away from the cells where the larvae are growing. 

 The comb made by some species resembles a spiral staircase, 

 and there are special cells for the pollen as well as for the 

 honey; and here, for the first time, we find wax used to form 

 the comb. Here also we find the three separate castes, the 

 queen or queens, producing eggs; the working bees, or bar- 



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