APPENDIX. 53 



summer, gives six months for the former and four months for the 

 latter 1 . 



The drones do not as a rule live so long 1 as four months, for they 

 meet with a violent death before the end of this period. The well- 

 known slaughter of the drones is not, according to the latest obser- 

 vations, brought about directly by means of the stings of the 

 workers, but by these latter driving away the useless drones from 

 the food so that they perish of starvation. 



Wasps. It is interesting that among these near relations of the 

 bees, the life of the female should be much shorter, corresponding 

 to the much lower degree of specialization found in the colonies. 

 The females of Polistes gallica and of Vespa not only lay eggs but 

 take part in building the cells and in collecting food ; they are 

 therefore obliged to use all parts of the body more actively and 

 especially the wings, and are exposed to greater danger from 

 enemies. 



It is well known from Leuckart's observations, that the so-called 

 ' workers ' of Polistes gallica and Bombus are not arrested females 

 like the workers of a bee-hive, but are females which although 

 certainly smaller, are in every way capable of being fertilized and 

 of reproduction. Von Siebold has nevertheless proved that they 

 are not fertilized, but reproduce parthenogenetically. 



The fertilized female which survives the winter, commences to 

 found a colony at the beginning of May : the larvae, which hatch 

 from the first eggs, which are about fifteen in number, become 

 pupae at the beginning of June, and the images appear towards the 

 end of the same month. These are all small ' workers,' and they 

 perform such good service in tending the second brood, that the 

 latter attain the size of the female which founded the colony ; only 

 differing from her in the perfect condition of their wings, for by 

 this time her wings are greatly worn away. 



The males appear at the beginning of July ; their spermatozoa 

 are mature in August, and pairing then takes place with certain 

 ' special females which require fertilization ' which have in the 

 meantime emerged from their cocoons. These are the females which 

 live through the winter and found new colonies in the following 

 spring. The old females of the previous winter die, and do not live 



1 E. Bevan, ' Ueber die Honigbiene und die Liinge ihres Lebens ; ' abstract in 

 Oken's 'Ids,' 1844, p. 506. 



