OLFACTORY SENSE OF THE HONEY BEE 275 



distance. In a moment one or two begin to bite her legs and 

 pull her wings, but this rough treatment never lasts long and no 

 strange queen was ever seriously injured in these cases. After 

 a short time the workers treat her as well as they would their 

 own mother. 



On many occasions the queens are seen eating candy, and 

 they repeatedly examine the piece of comb. Very often the end 

 of the abdomen is inserted into the cells of the comb, but no 

 eggs were ever found. In most cases when a queen dies the 

 workers no longer '^pay any attention" to her, but in one in- 

 stance after the queen had died she was surrounded for some 

 time by the workers until one of them seized her wing and tried to 

 drag her away. 



DRONES 



In every instance when one or two drones were put into one of 

 the observation cases the workers attacked them. The drones 

 run about inside the case aimlessly and continually try to get 

 out. They ''pay attention" to nothing and often run against'one 

 another and against the workers. A worker sometimes follows 

 a drone, biting at his legs and wings. Very often a drone drags 

 one or more workers that are holding tenaciously to one of his 

 appendages around in the case several times. As soon as the 

 workers can halt his wanderings, one of them climbs upon his 

 back and tries to sting him. Perhaps more drones are actually 

 worried to death by the workers continually following and nibbling 

 at their wings and legs than die from the effects of the sting. On 

 one occasion a worker was observed trying to sting a dead drone. 

 A drone never offers to defend himself in any way but endeavors 

 to escape. 



When six to nine drones are introduced all at once among as 

 many workers, the latter appeared to be overwhelmed by their 

 number and seldom offer an attack unless one drone becomes 

 separated from the others. Even in such cases a great deal of 

 attacking is witnessed throughout a day, although no one drone 

 is continually attacked until it dies. When nine drones are 



