Insects and their world 



workers to found a new hive at another site. The workers that are left 

 behind rear another virgin queen, which goes out on a mating flight 

 with the drones, and then returns to take over the job of egg-laying in 

 the nest. 



The life of the honey-bee has been studied in greater detail than that 

 of any other insect, and is mentioned by classical authors, and in the 

 Bible. People have always been fascinated by the problem of how the 

 bees find their way about. Not only do the workers forage for a mile or so 

 round the hive, and return confidently to it, but they are apparently able 

 to pass on information to the other bees inside. As soon as the forager 

 has found a crop that is in flower, and has returned to the hive, other 

 bees come out and fly to the same flowers. 



Ingenious theories have been put forward by von Frisch (1950) and 

 others to explain how this is done by performing a 'dance' on the comb, 

 among the other workers. The path followed by the bee during its 

 dance, and the orientation of this path on the comb, together with the 

 timing of the dance, and the spacing of certain pauses for a shaking of 

 the abdomen, are said to tell the other bees how far off is the source of 

 nectar, and in what direction. 



They may be summarised by saying that the bee returning from 

 having found a source of nectar is supposed to note its direction from 

 the sun and the distance back to the hive, and then to translate these 

 from a horizontal plane into a complicated symbolic dance on a vertical 

 comb. The other bees are supposed to appreciate this dance, in the dark, 

 and when they come out into the bright light, to be able to interpret it 

 back on to a horizontal plane, and in the reverse direction. Incredulity is 

 answered by the fact that they do get there, and if not by this means, 

 how else ? 



Ants 



There are no solitary ants. All ants live in social colonies that are 

 permanent, and both the colonies and the individual ants in them may 

 survive for many years. 



Like the bees and wasps, the queen ants are fertilised in a nuptial 

 flight, but the nuptial flights of ants take place simultaneously over a 

 wide area. It is not known just what sets them off, but it is a most 

 remarkable phenomenon that a district will be filled with ' flying ants ' 

 on one particularly sultry summer's afternoon. 



After mating, the queen ant lands and breaks oflf her wings, then 

 either goes into an existing colony of ants, or starts a new one. Then, 



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