86 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



usual result is the death of one of them. This is often spoken 

 of as due to the jealousy of the queens, but it may have a 

 meaning in connection with the necessity the community is 

 under of sending out swarms to maintain a separate exist- 

 ence. The sting of the queen is used only in these battles 

 and in slaying the young queens. At the end of the swarm- 

 ing season the workers set upon the drones and kill them, 

 casting their dead bodies out of the hive. The queens live 

 for several years, depositing two or three thousand eggs a 

 day during a part of the season. The workers live, as a rule, 

 less than two months. 



The wax of which the cells of the comb are composed is 

 secreted in the form of thin plates in 'wax pockets" be- 

 neath some of the abdominal somites. While preparing this, 

 full-fed workers cling motionless to the cells in the upper 

 part of the hive, and in about twenty-four hours the wax 

 appears. This is removed by other workers and is used in 

 construction. Honey is made for food for the young and 

 for winter consumption of the colony. The pollen of flowers 

 is brought to the hive in "pollen baskets," clear spaces sur- 

 rounded by hairs on the outer side of the hind tibiae. The 

 basal joints of the hind tarsi are much enlarged and are used 

 as brushes to gather the pollen. 



Bumblebees and Guest Bees. The bumblebees (Bom'bus, 

 Fig. 57) are social bees, having homes in fields, in deserted 

 mouse nests, and similar places. The nest is begun early in 

 the spring by a female which has wintered, and, as with the 

 social wasps, the burdens of the home are turned over to the 

 young workers when they emerge. Late in the season other 

 females and males appear, but there is no swarming as with 

 the honeybee. On the approach of cold weather the workers 

 and males die. The honey made is strong-smelling, but much 

 sought after by boys in the country, perhaps as much for the 

 danger connected with its capture as for the sake of the 



