GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 39 



90. Before terminating this comparatively short, but per- 

 haps, to many of our readers, tedious study of the organs 

 of the bee, we desire to commend Messrs. Girard, Packard, 

 Cook, Schiemenz, Dubini, and especially Mr. F. Cheshire, 

 who, by their writings, have helped us in this part of our 

 imdertakmg. We must add also that the more we study bees, 

 \ne more persuaded we are that Mr. Packard was right when 

 he wrote: 



91. "Besides these structural characters as animals, en- 

 dowed with instinct, and a kind of reason, differing, perhaps, 

 only in degree, from that of man, these insects outrank all the 

 articulates. In the unusual differentiation of the individual 

 into males, females, and sterile workers, and a consequent sub- 

 division of laoor between them; in dwelling in large colonies; in 

 their habits and in their relation to man as domestic animals, 

 subservient to his wants, the bees possess a combination of 

 characters which are not found in any other sub-order of insects, 

 and which rank them first and highest in the insect series." — 

 ("Guide to the Study of Insects.") 



92. One of the especial peculiarities of the hymenopters 

 is the care most of them give to their progeny. We will show 

 how bees nurse their young. Other insects of the same sub- 

 order construct their nests of clay or paper, or burrow in the 

 wood, or in the earth. All prepare for their yomig a sufficient 

 supply of food; some of pollen and honey, others of animal 

 substance. Several kinds of wasps provide their nests with 

 living insects, spiders, caterpillars, etc., that they have pre- 

 viously paralyzed, but without killing them, by piercing them 

 with their stings. 



Ants seem to possess even a greater solicitude. When their 

 nests are overthrown, they carry their larvas to some hidden 

 place out of danger. 



We have exhibited the use of the organs of bees as a race. 

 We will now examine the character of each of the three kinds 

 of inhabitants of the bee-hive. 



