CHAPTER XL 

 FIELD WORK ON HYMENOPTERA. 



Various lines of investigation have already been 

 suggested in the discussion of the order as a whole. If 

 you are near an apiary in charge of some old bee-keeper, 

 the best thing that can be done is to visit him and ask 

 permission to go about with him while he tends his bees. 

 Then, if you are wise in your questions and economical 

 of his time, you may be able to induce him to talk of his 

 bees and possibly to show you some of the brood combs 

 with worker, drone, and queen cells. Stand still for at 

 least five minutes and watch the bees coming and going; 

 note their manner of flight, whether it is direct, or waver- 

 ing and uncertain. How far off can you see them coming 

 home? Must their sense of the direction of home from 

 the last flower visited, been stronger than yours would 

 have been? Do you believe that it is sight alone that 

 guides the home-coming? 



Walk out a little way to where the flowers that 

 are being visited are growing. Take your reading 

 glass and turn it on some bee found in a flower cluster. 

 She will not notice you and you will have a chance to see 

 how she does it. Remember that you are -looking at one 

 of the domesticated animals that have lived with man so 

 long that they are not fearful of his presence when on 

 flower business. 



For observation of the bees in the school-room, a 

 rather narrow hive box may be provided. Get some 

 carpenter to make it; or there may be some ingenious 



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