310 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Tlie ancients liad observed something of the econoni)- of bees, but nian_\- of their ideas 

 on the subject were strangel\- fantastic. It was perhaps natural to suppose that the leader of 

 the bees was a king rather tiian a queen ; but it was also supposed that a swarm of bees 

 could be obtained by killing an ox and leaving the carcase to rot. This notion appears to have 

 originated in swarms of flies, more or less resembling bees, having been noticed fls'ing round or 

 near putrefying carcases. 



Among all the truly social insects — i.e. hive-bees, wasps, ants, and termites, or so-called 

 white ants — we find that the bulk of the community consists of sterile females, and the number 

 of fertile females is very small, even in those cases where more than one female is permitted to 

 live in a nest, as among wasps. 



Pn,t, b, C. Rtidl 



I ll;:hs 



BEES 



S'lvarming from the hii'e after the queen 



Hl'MBI.E-BEES li\e in small communities, consisting of males, females, and workers; but 

 their economy is \ery simple compared with that of the hive-bee, and they do not confine 

 themselves to a single female to a nest. 



The SOLIT.VRV Bees are ver\' numerous in species, and consist onl}- of males and females. 

 They do not live in communities, but each female constructs a dwelling for her own 

 young. Many of them burrow in the ground, and thej- are so far gregarious that a large 

 number of females will sometimes form their burrows near each other in the same bank. 

 The solitary bees are very varied in their habits, and some of them are parasitic on other 

 species. 



The large CarI'EXTER-P.EES, which form their nests in wood, are not British ; but there 

 are some small species which make theirs in the interior of bramble-sticks. Some are very 

 hairy; others are smooth, and look at first sight like small wasps, being banded with black and 

 yellow. But one of the handsomest and most conspicuous of the solitary species is the FuLVOUS 

 Bee, which is a hairy species much resembling a small humble-bee, and is one often seen in 

 abundance along with other bees, flying round sallow blossoms in spring. 



