Social Communities 



335 



As mentioned in the chapter on Life-history (p. 88) the 

 male bees are the product of unfertilised, the females — 

 both queens and workers — of fertilised, eggs. In the 

 architecture of their combs, the perfection of their 

 social life, and the careful tending of their grubs, the 

 Hive-bees are in advance of all other bees and wasps. 

 Too great multiplication of their colonies is prevented 

 by the habit of — ^ ->,_ 



" s w a r m i n g." ' ^'-. ' 



When a young 

 queen emerges 

 from her cell she 

 is killed by the 

 workers or 

 allowed to fight 

 to the death with 

 her mother unless 

 the hive is over- 

 crowded, in which 

 case, the old 

 queen, being pre- 

 vented by the 

 workers from 

 attacking her 

 daughter, leads 

 off part of the 

 pop u 1 a tion to 

 found a new com- 

 munity elsewhere 

 (164, 200). 



Ant-communities also last for several years, but 

 their economy differs in many points from that of the 

 bees. A colony is founded by a single female or by 

 several in association. In some cases these are 

 accompanied by males, and many fully developed 

 individuals of both sexes are to be found in a nest in 



Fig. 176. — Comb of Hive-bee {Apis jne/li/ica, 

 L.) ; to left, egg, larvs, pupae, in various stages, 

 and emerging worker ; to right, queen-cells. 

 From Benton, Bull, i (n.s.), U.S. Dept. Agr., 

 Div. Ent. 



