XXIV 



INSECTA : HYMENOPTERA 



375 



this, one or two new swarms must go off to found new 

 colonies. Now the workers begin to prepare for this exodus. 

 The most necessary provision is the rearing of the males or 

 drones, and the rearing of a new queen or mother-bee to take 

 the place of the one who goes off with the first swarm. 



The cell-makers begin, therefore, to construct 

 rather larger cells (Fig. 297, D), and the queen, 

 though apparently reluctant to enter these, will do so when she 



Drones. 



W 



FIG. 297. A Piece of the Brood-comb of a Honey Bee. 



W, Cells in which worker-bees are reared ; D, cells for drone-bees ; Qi and Q 2 , 

 cells for queen-bees. 



finds no smaller ones, and in each she lays an egg which 

 appears quite similar to those laid before, but which will 

 develop into a drone or male bee. What the actual differ- 

 ence is between the drone-egg and the worker-egg we 

 do not yet know for certain, but it is very probable that 

 the drone-eggs are always unfertilised and develop partheno- 

 genetically ; for the virgin queen, before she goes for her 

 marriage flight, often lays eggs which invariably develop 

 into drones. Some four or five hundred drones arise in a 

 colony of thirty to forty thousand workers, but in a larger 

 colony their number is greater. These drones do no work 



