THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEE AND THE BEEHIVE 



receive any care or help from its mother. In the bees named 

 the male may be smaller than the female and may not be 

 differentiated into a lazy, idle drone. 



In the next stage of progress we have a small colony, 

 which inhabits a nest that has a common entrance, marked 

 by an arrow in Fig. 17. In this stage the cells may be side 

 by side, as in Fig. 11, or end to end, as in Fig. 18. In Fig. 17 

 the colony is surrounded by a specially protected case, such 

 as we find in more complicated hives of bees and wasps. 

 Finally, in Fig. 19, we find a number of cells side by side, 

 which by pressure may become six-sided. Most primitive 

 bees collect more pollen than honey and secrete no wax. 

 Some bees make cells of leaves or of a substance that they 

 secrete, which becomes papery; some carve cells out of wood; 

 some cover their cells with a dome-like layer of mortar; and 

 in many of these primitive nests the larvae spend months 

 and months before hatching out. 



When we reach the social bees — that is, the bees that live 

 together in societies — ^we find that the most primitive are 

 the mosquito-bees; but whether their communities are the 

 product of a single queen or whether there is more than one 

 egg-producer in their midst is not clear. Here we find, for 

 the first time, special cells or collections of cells set apart for 

 storing honey and other special cells set apart for storing 

 pollen; and here, for the first time, we find wax, of which a 

 comb is built up. This wax is a special secretion of the bee's 

 body. Here again we find that the colonies have separated 

 into queen, or queens; working bees, or females that do not 

 lay eggs; and drones, or males. The fertile and unfertile 

 females are reared on a similar diet. The larva is always 

 sealed up, and once the egg is laid the young are deprived of 

 a mother's care. And here again the drone takes part in 

 the common activities of the hive. 



[207} 



