CHAPTER VI 

 THE LIFE PROCESSES OF THE INDIVIDUAL 



THE discussion in previous chapters has had to do with 

 the colony of bees and with the individual bees in their 

 relation to the colony. To give a more complete account 

 of the activities of the bees and to present a better con- 

 ception of what manner of animal a bee is, it is necessary 

 to discuss certain life processes of the adult individual. 

 The entire form and structure of the body is so fundamentally 

 different from that of man that it is difficult to form an ade- 

 quate idea of the life activities. In this chapter mention of 

 two important systems of organs is omitted, the nervous 

 system with its sense organs and the reproductive organs, 

 the structure and functions of these systems being so im- 

 portant that a separate chapter is devoted to each one. 



To understand the life processes, it is obviously necessary 

 to know the structure of the parts which function in the 

 various activities. Fortunately the anatomy of the honey- 

 bee has been carefully studied and described by Snodgrass. 1 

 Previous to the appearance of this paper various books and 

 papers on bee anatomy were published but unfortunately 

 in many cases the descriptions were erroneous and the 

 conclusions unjustified. 



In presenting the subject in the present case, it seems 

 desirable not to discuss anatomy separately but rather to 

 treat the bee as a living animal and to describe the functions 

 of the various systems of organs, giving only the anatomical 



1 Snodgrass, R. E., 1910. The anatomy of the honey bee. Tech. Ser. 

 18, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agric., 162 pp., 57 ill. 



132 



