33 OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



ized in this country, and is often found wild in forests, where it inhabits 

 hollow trees. It is said, however, that it never occurs far from the 

 habitations of men, which fact caused the Indians, in earlier times, to 

 call it the " white man's fly." It may be considered, indeed, like the 

 silk-worm, a thoroughly domesticated insect; and though so familiar to 

 us, the study of its habits has never lost its fascination nor its reward 

 in the discovery of some remarkable attribute or power. 



The form of the worker bee, with its compact, hairy body, its 

 strong wings, its large but widely separated eyes, its long proboscis, 

 and its sharp sting — which has the peculiarity of being barbed, and of 

 causing the death of its user by its loss, if thrust too vigorously into 

 the skin of the offender — is familiar to every one who has ever walked 

 in field or garden. The queen bee is less frequently seen, even by the 

 <;areful observer, although, where glass hives are used, she can occasional- 

 ly be noticed in her promenades among the brood cells. She has a much 

 longer body than the worker, and her proboscis and the pollen baskets 

 on the hinder tibiie are not so well developed. But one perfect queen 

 mother is permitted in a hive at one time, and when the colony grows 

 too large for its quarters, the mature queen goes with the migrating 

 swarm, and her place and oflSce in the hive is assumed by one of the 

 young Queens, of which, in the swarming season, there are always a 

 number at the point of development. At this season, too, the males or 

 drones are found in the hive in greatest numbers. These are stouter 

 bodied than the worker bees, and have the mouth parts and legs less per- 

 fectly developed, while ihe eyes are larger and almost meet at the top of 

 the head. They are hatched from unimpregnated eggs laid by an occa- 

 sional fertile worker, or by an unmated queen, or, most remarkable of all, 

 by a fertile queen, when she chooses to allow an egg to pass through the 



oviduct without contact with the sperm cells stored, after pairing, in her 



c 

 spermatJiica. In view of this we learn that the queen bee possesses a 



power not shared, so far as known, by any other animal, viz.: that of con- 

 trolling the sex of her offspring at will. The queen cells are more than 

 twice the size of those built for the rearing of workers, and are placed 

 here and there on the edges of the brood comb and at right angles to 

 the worker cells. The egg and embryo are of the same nature as those 

 designed to produce workers, and the queens or perfect females result 

 from their more spacious cells and the more nitrogenized food called 

 "royal jelly" on which they are fed. The average life of the queen is 

 from two to three years, and instances are on record of her attaining 

 the age of five years. During the ordinary period of life she lays be- 

 tween one and two millions of eggs. The life of the worker seldom 

 exceeds eight or nine months and that of the drone two or three. 



