PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 125 



I have before observed to you that there are two sorts 

 of workers, the wax-makers and nurses ^. They may 

 also be further divided into fertile and sterile ^ : for some 



furnished underneath with thick-set scojndts, which they use to 

 brush their bodies. 



Ihe claw-jointu are fulvescent. 



The abdomen is cordate, very short, being scarcely so long as the 

 head and trunk together, consisting of seven segments, which are 

 fulvous at their apex. The first segment is longer than any of the 

 succeeding ones, and covered above with rather long hairs. The 

 second and third dorsal segments are apparently naked ; but under 

 a triple lens, in a certain light, some adpressed hairs may be per- 

 ceived ; — the remaining ones are hairy, the three last being inflexed. 

 The ventral segments are very narrow, hairy, and fulvous. 



iii. The bodi/ of the Workers is oblong. 



The head triangular. The mandibles are prominent, so as to ter- 

 minate the head in an angle, toothless and forcipate. The tongtie 

 and max'illcB are long and incurved : the labrum and antenna; black. 



In the trunk the tegulce are black. The wings extend only to the 

 apex of the fourth segment of the abdomen. The legs are all black, 

 with the digits only rather piceous. The posterior tibia; are naked 

 above, exteriorly longitudinally concave, and interiorly longitudi- 

 nally convex ; furnished with lateral and recumbent liairs to form 

 the corbicida, and armed at the end with the jH'cten. The upper sur- 

 face oi the jmstcrior planta; resembles that of the tibics ; underneath 

 they are furnished with a scojnda or brush of stiff hairs set in rows : 

 at the base they are armed with stiff bristles, and exteriorly with an 

 acute appendage or auricle. 



The abdomen is a little longer than the head and trunk together ; 

 oblong, and rather heart-shaped — a transverse section of it is triangu- 

 lar. It is covered with longish flavo-pallid hairs : the first segment 

 is short with longer hairs ,- the base of the three intermediate seg- 

 ments is covered, and as it were banded, with pale hairs. The apex 

 of the three intermediate ventral segments is rather fulvescent, and 

 their base is distinguished on each side by a trapeziform wax-pocket 

 covered by a thin membrane. The sting, or rather vagina of the 

 spicula, is straight. 



^ See Vol. I. p. 486. 



'' In hives where a queen laying male eggs has been killed, the 

 workers continue to make only male cells, though supplied with a 

 fertile queen, and the fertile workers lay eggs in them. Schirach, 258. 



