288 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



fugitives. It will be remarked that these executioners 

 make no use of their stings ; these they might be unable 

 to withdraw from their victim's body, in which case 

 they, too, would die. But there is no need to run this 

 risk, for the males, their brothers, whom they so cheerfully 

 slay, are unarmed ; they may be attacked without risk. 

 The dreadful work, however, is soon over, and the sur- 

 vivors, the queen and her daughters, have the house to 

 themselves to make the final preparations for the winter 

 sleep, which is apparently undisturbed by qualms of 

 conscience. 



There are certain structural differences distinguishing 

 the three types in such a hive — the queen, the drone and 

 the worker — which must now be referred to. The queen 

 is larger than the worker ; she has a larger and longer 

 abdomen, a longer and much-curved sting, and her eyes 

 have fewer facets. Only vestiges remain of the wax- 

 secreting organs, and no trace is to be found of the 

 wonderful pollen-baskets which perform so important 

 a function in the worker ; and finally, her instincts are 

 of a very different kind. 



The " pollen-basket " of the worker is a strange con- 

 trivance. The pollen is mainly collected by the hairs 

 which clothe the under surface of the body, from which 

 it is scraped by special brushes of hairs which clothe the 

 inner surface of the " metatarsus " — the big, flat joint 

 to which are attached a series of small triangular joints, 

 the last of which bears the claws. When the brushes are 

 " clogged up," the legs are crossed and the pollen is 

 combed out by specially stiff hairs on the " tibia " — the 

 joint immediately above the metatarsus — and the bolus 

 thus formed is then transferred to the outer surface of 



