1857.] Tie Honey Bee. 215 



and shorter fore-feet, and are destitute of stings. The abdominal 

 cavity of the queen, and working bees, contains a little bag of poison 

 communicating with the sting. In the queen moreover there are 

 two large ovaries, consisting of a great number of smaller cavities, 

 each containing eggs. These ovaries open near the anus, previous 

 to which they dilate into pouches, where the egg is delayed to receive a 

 viviscous coating, from an adjacent gland. The inferior half circles, 

 except the first and last, on the abdomen of working bees, have each 

 on their inner surfiice, two cavities, where the wax is formed in large 

 layers, and comes out from between the abdominal rings. In the 

 midst of the working season this may be seen with the naked eye. — 

 This wax may be regarded as the fat of bees, and when the " work 

 glows,'^ (opus fervet ) is generated rapidly, in so much that the 

 scales of it fall profusely at the bottom of the hive, making a fine 

 composition for the deposite of moth eggs, which we shall have oc- 

 casion to notice more at length. Below these abdominal cavities, is 

 a particular membrane, formed of a very small, hexagonally meshed 

 network, which is connected with the membrane, lining the walls of 

 the abdominal cavity. We have said that the office of the workers 

 was to labor. It may be as some have supposed, each in his own 

 peculiar sphere, having his own particular work. Of this division 

 of labor among the workers, however plausable, we have nothing to 

 affirm. Of the sexuality of the workers, it may be interesting to 

 remark that we have, upon depriving a swarm of a queen, witnessed 

 their operations in rearing one. For a short time the entire commun- 

 ity seems to be in an unsettled and dispirited condition, runninig in 

 every direction, as if mourning and distracted at her loss. 



But finding in their bereavement that they have ability to rear a 

 new queen, there being worker eggs present in the combs in the 

 proper condition, they select one or more, and set about the work 

 with diligence, of making one or more queen cells, over as many 

 of these eggs ; which cells differ entirely from ordinary cells being 

 about the size and shape of a small pea-nut, and opening downwards. 

 This egg soon hatches, and the bees, true to their instinct, feed the 

 young larva upon such food as is calculated to develop her sexual 

 character. After about fourteen days, emerges the young queen, 

 some two days sooner than if she had been brought out a worker. — 

 The food of the young queen upon examination, is more stimulating, 

 being sapid, and quite sharp to the taste, difi"ering materially in 

 character from that fed to the drone, or worker. For the sake of 



