I SOCIALES HONEY-BEE 65 



sufficient food for the wliole consumption of a larva is accumulated 

 the queen deposits an egg in the cell, which is at once completely 

 closed by tlie worker. The interior of the abode of these bees is 

 quite dark, only a very small orifice being left, and in this a sen- 

 tinel is constantly on the alert. The same writer states that 

 Trigona erassipes has the very peculiar haliit of always locating 

 its brood-comb in the nest of a species of Tervies. 



The honey-bee, A2)is mellifica (Fig. 6), is considered the highest 

 form attained by the Anthophilous division of the Hymenoptera. 

 The differentiation of the three forms, male, female, and worker, 

 is here carried to a greater degree of perfection than in the other 

 bees. The drones are the males ; the individuals we see gather- 

 ing honey are always workers, neither the male nor the female in 

 this species taking any part in procuring food for themselves or 

 for the colony. In addition to this the colonies formed ]nay be 

 described as permanent : they do not come to an end at the close 

 of one season, and provision is made for the formation of a new 

 colony while the old one still persists, by means of a peculiar pro- 

 cess called swarming. The life-history of Aj^ris mellijica and its 

 anatomy and physiology have been discussed in a whole library 

 of works, and we need only notice the chief features. When a 

 swarm of bees leaves a hive it consists of the queen-bee or 

 female, and a number of workers, these latter being, in fact, the 

 surplus population that has been produced in the hive. The 

 swarm is not a nuptial flight, as is often supposed, but an act 

 of emigration. When this swarm has been housed, the bees 

 commence operations in their new quarters, by secreting wax ; 

 they are enabled to do this by having consumed much saccharine 

 food ; the wax is produced by means of glands in the hind-body 

 over the inner faces of the ventral plates of the abdominal rings, 

 and it makes its appearance there, after passing from the interior 

 of the body through some peculiar membranes on the ventral 

 segments, in the form of thin projecting plates. These the bee 

 takes off with an apparatus on the hind pair of legs and applies, 

 after working up with the mandibles, to form the cells in 

 which young ones are to be reared and food stored. A large 

 number of bees working in common thus produce the regular 

 and beautiful structure known as the comb ; the queen afterwards 

 lays an egg in each cell, and as these soon hatch, great labour is 

 thrown on the workers, which have then to feed the young ; this 

 VOL. VI F 



