PIONEERS OF COMMUNAL LIFE 



Bees, to last until pupation. When the young bees emerge from the 

 pupae, the cells are razed. 



The bees' nest, however, does not consist only of the spherical 

 living-room. Above and below this the bees build a great heap of 

 waxen honey-jars, which in the case of some species may be as big 

 as a hen's egg, and are filled with honey or pollen. The pots in the 

 interior of the ball cannot be got at until the outer pots are emptied, 

 when the bees can bite through them. Above and below this mass 

 of honey-pots the nest is closed. If the bees build in a hollow tree 

 they build a cross-partition, the "batumen," which is sometimes as 

 thick as one's finger, and, according to the species, may consist of 

 wax, clay, or resin. 



Like the European bee, the Brazilian bee exists in three forms. 

 There are males or drones, defenceless creatures, which, like our 

 drones, have no sting, neither do they bite; and they do not take 

 part in the building of the nest. Their only task is to fertiUze the 

 sexually mature female, the "queen." When the mating- time is 

 over they are ejected, as useless mouths. There is a kind of "battle 

 of the drones," during which it has been observed that the workers 

 seize the drones and fly out of the nest with them, or drag them out, 

 and leave them lying outside, having first, by way of farewell, given 

 them a vigorous bite at the back of the head. The drones, in the 

 meantime, do not defend themselves, but only seek safety in 

 flight. 



The high-water mark of the drone's life is the nuptial flight of the 

 queen. In Europe, when all Nature is revivified by the Spring, and 

 when all the labours of the bee community have been duly accom- 

 plished, the queen leaves her old home with a swarm of workers, 

 in order to found a new community. In the meantime, however, 

 creeping out of her cell, the young queen emerges, circles round the 

 hive, and buzzes oflf, followed by the "droning" swarm of drones. 

 But only one drone is the favoured spouse, and even he must pay by 

 his death for the intoxication of love ; dying, he falls to the ground, 

 while the fertilized queen returns to the hive, and in the community 

 orphaned by the departure of the old queen she takes over the duty 

 of egg-laying. 



In Brazil it is not the old queen who departs with the swarm of 

 workers, but the young and still virgin queen, who must take her 

 nuptial flight from her new home, or be fertilized in the hive itself. 

 The old queen, a female who has already laid eggs, is incapable 

 of flight, for her body is unshapely with the masses of eggs contained 



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