228 IIYMENOPTKRA. 



they have short bodies, with well-developed mouth 

 parts, legs, and wings. The genital organs are, how- 

 ever, nearly aborted. The males perpetuate their 

 kind, and when this work is accomplished either die 

 or are killed. Their mouth parts are reduced in size, 

 and the hind-legs are not modified for collecting and 

 storing pollen. The queen lays eggs, and from two to 

 three thousand may be laid in a day. Her body is 

 longer than that of a worker, her hind-legs are not 

 modified, and her wings are shorter ; she has no glands 

 for secreting wax, and no honey-bag. The cells of the 

 comb serve as nurseries and also as storehouses. The 

 statement is not infrequently made that these cells are 

 mathematically exact, although Dr. Wyman^ showed, 

 nearly twenty years ago, that this i§ not the case, the 

 perfect hexagonal cell being the ideal rather than the 

 real form. Darwin had previously brought out the 

 fact, interesting in this connection, that a constant 

 progress towards the ideal form is observable in pass- 

 ing from the cells of the simpler cell-making insects, 

 such as the humble-bee, wasp, hornet, and Mexican 

 bee, to those of the hive-bee.- 



Special cells are reserved for the eggs. The larvae 

 (PL X., Fig. 1 79) differ from those of more generalized 

 insects in their extreme helplessness. They are color- 

 less, footless creatures, wholly unable to provide for 

 themselves, so that special workers, called nurses, take 

 care of them. These provide food of different quali- 

 ties, giving the secretion formed from pollen by diges' 



1 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, Vol. VII. 



2 See Entomology for Beginners, Packard, Chap. IV. on 

 " Insect Architecture." 



