104 Beekeeping 



organs undergo change, these are not of a character to change 

 the outside appearance. The food taken by the adult is 

 not stored up within the body, as in the larva, but is taken 

 for immediate use. 



THE CYCLE OF DUTIES OF THE ADULT WORKER BEE 



When the worker emerges from the cell, it is covered with 

 a soft skin, the last pupal moult, which is quickly removed. 

 For a day or two the young bee remains on the combs, fre- 

 quently on the one from which it emerged, and moves about 

 but little. Numbers of young bees are often seen in the 

 upper part of the hive and especially in the supers. In a 

 few days they begin the inside work 1 of the hive which 



1 An interesting opportunity for speculation is offered in attempting 

 to determine the basis for the division of labor in worker bees according 

 to age. In studying the structure of the compound eye, the author (Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Science, Philadelphia, Vol. LVII, pp. 123-157) was struck by 

 the presence of enormous numbers of curved unbranched hairs which cover 

 the eye of the young adult bee so completely that the facets are not visible. 

 These hairs are broken off readily and in field bees most of the hairs have 

 disappeared. It is probably impossible for the compound eyes to function 

 while these hairs remain. These facts suggested the possibility that the 

 young bees remain in the hive because they cannot see clearly enough to 

 fly to the field and that when the hairs are lost the field work is begun. 

 That the young bees are capable of flight is clearly shown by their ability 

 to leave with a swarm. In this case, sight is probably not essential. In 

 attempting to determine whether there is any ground for such a belief, 

 numerous experiments were tried, by removing the hairs of young bees 

 to see whether they were then more inclined to leave the hive. The hairs 

 were scraped from some young workers and in other cases soft paraffin or 

 beeswax and paraffin was applied to the eyes and then removed, the hairs 

 breaking off with its removal. In every case the handling made the action 

 of the bees abnormal, so that no conclusions of any value were obtained. 

 That this is probably the correct interpretation of the function of these 

 hairs still lingers in the mind of the author, in spite of inability to obtain 

 proof through experiments. 



It may be said in favor of this theory that it offers a structural basis 

 for an instinct which is otherwise unexplained. The attribution of an 

 action to "instinct" is a lazy way of explaining phenomena. Merely to 

 classify an action and group it with others, to which a class name is given, 

 does not throw any light on the behavior. When an action is attributed 

 to "instinct" the study of the behavior often suffers a loss rather than 

 gain, for the giving of a name, to some minds, constitutes an explanation. 

 There is reason for the belief that instincts all have a physical basis, some 



