HYMENOPTERA 



989 



Fig. 1228. — Comb of honey-bee with queen- 

 cells. 



They are few in number and are only present in the hive during the 

 early summer. After the swarming season is over, these gentlemen 

 of leisure are driven out of the hive by the workers or are killed by 

 them. 



The queen is larger than a worker, and has a long pointed body. 

 She is developed in a cell which differs greatly from the ordinary 

 hexagonal cell of honey- 

 comb. This cell is large, 

 cylindrical, and extends 

 vertically. In Figure 1228 

 the beginnings of two queen 

 cells are represented on the 

 lower edge of the comb, and 

 a completed cell extends 

 over the face of the comb 

 near the left side. From 

 the lower end of this cell 

 hangs a lid, which was cut 

 away by the workers to al- 

 low the queen to emerge. 



The queen larva is fed 

 with a substance called royal 



jelly. This is a substance which resembles blanc-mange in color and 

 consistency. It is excreted from the mouth by the nurse-bees, and 

 is very nutritious food. The origin of this food, whether it is a 

 secretion from special glands of the nurse-bees, or is regurgitated from 

 their stomachs is not at present known. During the first three days 

 of the larval stage of worker bees they are also fed with royal jelly 

 after which they are fed with honey and bee-bread. 



It has been demonstrated that in the egg state there is no differ- 

 ence between a worker and a queen. When the workers wish to 

 develop a queen they tear down the partitions between three adjacent 

 cells containing eggs that under ordinary conditions would develop 

 into workers. Then they destroy two of the eggs, and build a queen- 

 cell over the third. When the egg hatches they feed the larva with 

 royal jelly, and it develops into a queen. 



In early summer several queen-cells are provided in each colony. 

 As soon as a queen is developed from one of these the old queen at- 

 tempts to destroy her. But the young queen is guarded by the work- 

 ers, and then the old queen with a goodly portion of her subjects 

 swarm out, and they go to start a new colony. 



The swarming of the honey-bee is essential to the continued exist- 

 ence of the species; for in social insects it is as necessary for the 

 colonies to be multiplied as it is that there should be a reproduction 

 of individuals. Otherwise, as the colonies were destroyed the species 

 would become extinct. With the social wasps and with the bumble- 

 bees the old queen and the young ones remain together peacefully in 

 the nest; but at the close of the season the nest is abandoned by all 

 as an unfit place for passing the winter, and in the following spring 



