xxiv INSECTA : HYMENOPTERA 379 



till finally, far up in the clear air, in the region unhaunted 

 by birds, who might attack them, the strongest, swiftest of 

 the drones, who alone may win the queen, reaches her side, 

 and together they whirl still higher in a brief moment of 

 union then it is all over, the drone falls back to earth dead,* 

 having given his life for this one ecstatic moment, and the 

 queen returns to her home, where she is welcomed by her 

 waiting subjects, to leave it again perhaps twice only in her 

 life, when she may lead forth new swarms. Now for three 

 years at least, she is capable, all through the summer months, 

 of laying fertilised eggs at a rate of many hundreds, some- 

 times thousands, a day. She alone is now responsible for the 

 whole future population of the hive. 



Tlie All goes on regularly and methodically in the 



Massacre hive until the approach of winter ; then the workers 



of the seem to realise all at once the danger of still 



rones. h av i n g to support in the hive many hundreds of 

 useless drones who have never found a mate, and who still 

 lurk about in corners doing nothing and using up the stores 

 of honey. Suddenly, therefore, one day in autumn, the 

 workers set upon them and sting or bite them to death, and 

 throw out their dead bodies not a single drone is left alive ; 

 the bees are preparing for the hardest time of their lives 

 the long winter, when they have to stay within the hive and 

 live on the honey they have stored. The one drone who 

 flew aloft with the queen accomplished the work for which 

 all the drones were fitted, and the now useless remainder 

 cannot be tolerated in the hive any longer. 



It is a strange history, the history of the hive, 

 of the Hive Nowhere e l se i n the animate world do we see the 

 life of the individual so absolutely subject to the 

 life of the community, and yet at the same time dependent on 

 it for an isolated bee, under whatever favourable conditions 

 of warmth and nutrition, will soon die, apparently from loneli- 

 ness. Think what is sacrificed for the hive, by the workers 

 especially ! Their own life is limited on every side, even their 

 physical development is checked (p. 368), their whole time 

 and energy is given to the building of the fabric of the hive, 

 caring for the young, laying up stores of food for the com- 

 munity, and other necessary duties ; so hard do they work, 

 indeed, that their lives often endure only a few short weeks, 



