CHAPTER IV 

 THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 



ONE of the remarkable peculiarities of bees, which 

 is also shared by other social insects, as ants, wasps 

 and termites, is that there are three distinct kinds of 

 individuals in the community. For, in addition to 

 the males and females, which are the reproducing 

 members of the colony, there is a third class which 

 performs the labours of the community. The 

 females, of which there is usually only one in a 

 colony, are known as queens; the males as drones; 

 and the labourers as workers. (Plate V.) 



THE QUEEN (Plates V. VI, VII) 



The bee-queen is the acme of a long line of com- 

 munistic development. It is little wonder that those 

 men of ancient times who observed her, and the 

 attitude of the other bees toward her, regarded her 

 as regal and called her queen. But she is a much 

 more important element in the perfect commune 

 than a mere sovereign, since she is the actual mother 

 of her subjects. 



Too much care cannot be shown in the selection of 

 the queen, or mother of the bee-colony. Her blood 

 is their blood; her faults are their faults; her weak- 

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