OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 31 



abdomen enabling the insect to thrust its sting with considerable force. 

 The poison is of an acid nature and may be neutralized with an alkali. 

 An important secretion of many bees is the product known as wax. 

 This is an exudation from the under surface of the abdomen, which 

 Prof. Cook describes as "a solid unctuous substance and is, as shown 

 by its chemical composition, a fat-like material. * * * It is formed by 

 the secreting membrane, and there are four " wax pockets" on each 

 side." 



[Pig 14 ] The front legs of honey bees are provided with 



an ingenious contrivance for dressing the antennaj. 

 It is a movable spur at the end of the thigh which 

 closes over a notch in the base of the tibia, the 

 antennoB being drawn through the aperture thus 

 formed. Several other functions for this contrivance 

 have been suggested. 



In consideration of a difference in the length of 

 the mouth parts, the bees are separated into two 

 families : 

 /6<%^ ^ Apid^ — long-tongued bees ; and 



sWt Leg of Honey Bee- ANDRENIDJE— short-tOUgued beeS. 



They are further distinguished, according to their relations with 

 each other, as Social, Sglitary and Parasitic or Cuckoo bees. 



In this country there are but two genera of social bees, namely, 

 the genus Apis, which contains but one species — melifica, the well- 

 known Hive or Honey bee, and the genus Bomhus, containing about 

 fifty species of the almost equally well-known Humble or Bumblebees. 



All social bees, as well as other insects of the same habit, live to- 

 gether in larger or smaller communities, and have a regular system of 

 government and labor — a sort of ideal communism — in which no indi- 

 vidual is independent, but each performs certain duties for the common 

 good. Among the bees each colony contains three sorts of individuals : 

 one or more perfect females, or queens, which are the mothers of the 

 swarm ; a considerable number of males or drones, only permitted or 

 developed in the hive or nest at certain seasons, and a great number of 

 smaller, imperfect females, most appropriately termed ^^ivorkers,^^ since 

 upon them devolve all the labors of the colony. 



The typical species of this group is the Hive bee, celebrated from 

 time immemorial in sacred as well as classic literature, for the delicious 

 and useful products of its industry, honey and wax; for its intelligence 

 and mechanical skill, and its various peculiar developments and adapta- 

 tions. Although an introduced species, it is now thoroughly natural- 



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