HYMENOPTERA 1005 



Family APID^ 

 The Honey-bees 



The family Apid«, as restricted here, includes only a single genus 

 Apis, of which only four species are known, and one of these is 

 doubtfully distinct. In this country a single introduced species, the 

 honey-bee, Apis mellifica, is found. This species has been widely 

 distributed over the world by man. The other species are restricted 

 to the Indomalyan region; these are A. dorsdta, A. fldrea, and A. 

 indica. The last named species is probably a variety of Apis mellifica. 

 The colonies of A . dorsata and A . florea build a single pendent comb 

 from the lower sides of a branch, and are not available for cultivation. 

 A . mellifica and A . indica nest in cavities, as hollow tree-trunks and 

 caverns, and will make use of hives prepared for them. 



This family consists of social bees in which the hind tibias are 

 without apical spurs; the workers are furnished with pollen-baskets 

 or corbiculfe on the hind legs, but the queens are without functionally 

 developed ones. Unlike the queen of the nest-building bumblebees 

 the queen of the honey-bee is unable to found a colony or even to 

 exist apart from workers of her own species. 



The honey-bee was introduced into America more than three 

 centuries ago, and escaping swarms have stocked our forests with it; 

 for when free, swarms almost invariably build their nests in hollow 

 trees. These nests include a variable number of vertical combs, which 

 have cells on both sides, instead of a single series as is the case in the 

 combs of our native social wasps. The cells of which the comb is 

 composed are used both for storing the food of the colony and for 

 rearing the brood. 



The three castes of bees of which a colony is composed are easily 

 distinguished. The workers are the well-known form that we see 

 collecting pollen and nectar from flowers and entering and leaving 

 the hive in large ntimbers. They constitute the greater part of the 

 colony; an average strong colony will include from 35,000 to 50,000 

 workers. They are females in which the reproductive organs are 

 imperfectly developed; they do not ordinarily lay eggs, and when 

 they do the eggs develop only into males. The workers do not pair 

 with males, consequently their eggs are unfertilized, and unfertilized 

 eggs of the honey-bee produce only males. The workers are so-called 

 because they perform all the labors of the colony. Young workers 

 attend to the inside work of the hive; they take care of the young 

 brood, and for this reason are termed nurse-bees, they build combs^^ 

 and protect the entrance of the hive against robbers. The older 

 workers go into the field to collect pollen, nectar and propolis. 



The drones are larger than the workers, and are reared in larger 

 cells. If honeycombs be examined, some sheets will be seen to be 

 composed of larger cells than those of the more common type. It is 

 in cells of this kind that the eggs are laid which are to develop into 

 males. In shape the drones are broader and blunter than the workers. 



