THE APIDES. 241 



Is minted with longitudinal bands of different colours. The en- 

 velope is attached closely to the branch above and below the 

 ■extreme combs, and is perforated low down by a small opening for 

 the insects. Inside there is plenty of room between the combs 

 themselves, and the envelope is not attached to them, so that the 

 wasps can pass up from the bottom to the top of the nest with ease. 



BEES. 



{Apides. ) 



The nest-making Hymcnoptcra, which collect honey and pollen, 

 are more interesting, so far as their organisation is concerned, 

 than any others ; and if it were not for the ants, they might also 

 lay claim to possessing greater intelligence and higher instincts 

 than any insects. All the insects which form the family of the 

 Apides — of which the bee is the commonest type- — have in fact a 

 higher organisation than any others. The concentration of their 

 nervous system is greater than in any other Hyvicnoptera ; their 

 respiratory apparatus is unusually developed, the tracheae of their 

 abdomen being transformed into large sacs ; and the appendages 

 of the" head are especially adapted for particular purposes, their 

 structures being very elaborate. The mandibles are turned into 

 pincers fit to cut wood, or into instruments for digging and work- 

 ing earth, and they are formed to enable the insects to knead 

 cement in moulds to pound their wax in, according to the habits 

 of different species. Among most of the bees the jaws and the 

 lower lip, which are long and delicate, are used as a trunk to suck 

 up honey from the nectaries of flowers ; and the hind legs, espe- 

 cially the first joints of the tarsi, are transformed so as to act as 

 pollen collectors. 



The bees are vegetarians during the whole of their lives ; the 

 'adults feed upon honey ; and the larva;, Avhich require more sub- 

 stantial aliment, are supplied with a sort of cake, which is 

 composed of honey and pollen. The larva; of all these Hy- 

 mcnoptera, like those of the wasps and the fossorial kinds, are 

 incapable of moving about, and are destined to live in the 

 narrow cells of the hive, where they are nursed by particular 

 bees. Some bees are solitary, and others live in colonies, which 



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