SOCIAL LIFE 227 



a cup-shaped hollow where the first eggs may be laid ; she 

 constructs also a small round-mouthed, waxen honey-pot. 

 She broods over the eggs to incubate them and covers them 

 with a thin layer of wax. The young grubs '' devour the 

 pollen which forms their bed, and also fresh pollen which 

 is added to the lump by the queen," who also feeds her 

 offspring with a mixture of pollen and honey which is 

 squirted into the larval chamber through a small hole bitten 

 by the queen in the waxen covering. While the larvae 

 remain small they are fed collectively, but " when they 

 grow large each one receives a separate ingestion." The 

 chamber within which they are developing increases in 

 size, and when, less than a fortnight after hatching, they 

 are fully grow^n, each spins round itself a thin, tough, 

 paper- like cocoon and pupates. All the early bees of the 

 family are small infertile females or workers, which when 

 they become active, take on the work of nest-making and 

 grub-tending, while the queen confines her attention to 

 laying eggs. As with the wasp communities, the population 

 of a bumble-bee nest grows through the summer, though it 

 rarely exceeds a final total of a few hundreds. The un- 

 developed condition of the workers may be explained as 

 due to poverty of feeding ; later in the season, when the 

 total number of larvae in a nest becomes diminished, young 

 queens are reared, as well as males, the latter arising (see 

 p. 140) from unfertilised eggs. As with the wasps again, 

 neither workers nor males survive the winter ; only the 

 young queens hibernate so as to renew the race in the suc- 

 ceeding spring. In tropical regions, however, the bumble- 

 bee community survives through a number of years, and 

 over-population is relieved by means of a succession of 

 swarms. 



The Stingless Bees (Meliponinae) are a small group 

 confined to tropical countries and most abundant by far 

 in South America. They are of small size and the stings 

 of the females are so far reduced as to be useless as weapons. 

 They are structurally more specialised than bumble-bees, 

 as the queens have narrow shins and proximal foot-segments 



