SOME USEFUL INVERTEBRATES. 



341 



FIG. 305. 



interest from an industrial point of view ; they are bees, 

 silk-worms, and cochineals. 



Bees are hymenoptera in whose buccal apparatus we 

 may distinguish an upper lip, mandibles, and a proboscis. 

 We will particularly study 

 the honey-bee, and we find 

 in one of their small repub- 

 lics three classes of indi- 

 viduals : drones or males, 

 females, and workers, the 

 last being sexless. A swarm 

 or hive contains one female, 

 called the queen, six or 

 seven hundred drones, and 

 twenty or twenty-five thou- 

 sand workers. The workers 

 procure food, construct the 

 hive, and take care of the 

 eggs, larvae, and pupae ; the 

 queen does nothing but eat 

 and lay eggs; the drones 

 are killed or driven from 



the hive as soon as there are a sufficient number of 

 larvae to insure a full, new, young swarm. The females 

 and workers have a sting connected with a poison-bag 

 containing formic acid and other irritating substances ; 

 this sting is barbed so that it cannot easily be with- 

 drawn, and its use as a weapon is usually followed by 

 the death of the bee. 



Wild bees usually make their nests in hollow trees or 

 in sheltered cavities in rocks, but for convenience in 

 removing the honey various forms of box-hives are 

 made. 



29* 



HONEY-BEE (Apis melliflca). A, 

 queen ; B, drone ; C, worker. 



