WINGS OF INSECTS, AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION. 49 



was that of providing for his own further comfort in the 

 matter of spinning himself a silken nightgown, in which 

 to take his pupa sleep. 



Awaking from this the scene was changed, he had 

 become a winged and perfect animal ; and into his mind 

 rushed a full sense of his responsibilities. First, he had 

 to make sure of his position in the hive as father, 

 mother, or worker, and finding himself, we will say, a 

 worker, he, or rather she, became aware that the duties 

 of house-builder, housekeeper, nurse, and even of soldier 

 and sentinel, devolved upon her. 



The business of life now opened before her, she 

 addressed herself to the task of repaying to futurity that 

 debt which the cares of a former generation had laid 

 upon her, and daily she toiled in its fulfilment. 



In these labours not only would the bee have found 

 a pair of wings large enough to sustain her weight a 

 serious encumbrance in some situations, and during some 

 employments, but the wings themselves would have been 

 liable to injury on a thousand occasions, unless the bee 

 had had the power of packing them into a small com- 

 pass. Therefore, as we have said, she is furnished with 



Fig. 22. Fig. 23. 



Wing of Drone-fly. Two Wings of Bee. 



(Eristalis tenax.) 



two narrow wings on each side, which lying, when not in 

 use, the one above the other in a small space, passscathe- 



E 



