

HYMENOPTERA. 



327 



' he baskets which the hind legs form. The working bee, when it has 

 gathered it, pushes it into the cell, pressing it with its hind-legs. 

 Vnother then arrives, and kneads up the mass to make it adhesive. 

 The bee brings the honey in its first stomach, and disgorges it into 

 )ne of the cells where it is to be kept. However, it is not always by 



Fig. 319. — Interior of a Hive. 



arrying its honey into a cell that the worker is relieved of it, often 

 mding an opportunity to deliver it on the way. 



"When it meets," says Reaumur,* "any of its companions who 

 /ant food, and who have not had time to go and get any, it stops, 

 rects and stretches out its trunk, so that the opening by which the 

 loney may be taken out is a little way beyond the mandibles. It 

 )ushes the honey towards this opening. The other bees, who know 

 /ell enough that it is from there they must take it, introduce the end 

 •f their trunks and suck it up. The bee which has not been stopped 

 •n its road, often goes to the places where other bees are working, 



* " Memoire^ pour servir a I'Histoire des Insectes," tome v., p. 449' 



