32 BIOLOGY AND HUMAN LIFE 



of cells, are all carried on by different individuals; yet there 

 seems to be no central government or directing officers. Each 

 bee goes about her affairs just as regularly, and we might say as 

 reliably, as does any solitary butterfly or grasshopper ; yet all 

 work together in perfect harmony to produce results that could 

 not be brought about by individuals working separately. 



In the bee colony there are three different kinds of individuals 

 produced— males, females, and workers. In any one nest or 

 hive there is but one female, the queen, and (during the sum- 

 mer) a number of males, or drones. The hundreds or thousands 

 of other bees are workers, which are really females that do not 



Fig. 14. The sting of the bee 



In this order of animals the weapon is the egg-laying organ. When the bee stings 

 someone, the point is likely to remain in the flesh; and as the animal flies away 

 some of its internal organs are mutilated and the insect soon dies. The value of this 

 weapon is not so much for the protection of the individual as for that of the colony 

 or species. The individual is sacrificed to protect the group or to educate the enemies 



of the species 



develop all their organs completely. Much of the time there are 

 no drones, for the male dies immediately after the female is 

 fertilized in the spring, and any other males are killed by the 

 workers on the approach of winter. There is here, then, first 

 of all, a division of labor between the reproducing individuals 

 and the individuals that do all the other kinds of work that have 

 been mentioned. But is there a particular class of workers for 

 each particular class of activity? Among the honeybees the 

 young adult, or imago, immediately after coming out of the 

 pupa stage, sets to work as nurse, looking after the larvae, 

 which have to be fed for a few days after hatching from the 

 eggs. Later these same adults turn to other work within the 

 hive, and after a few days more they go forth to gather pollen 



