260 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



First, then, every bee-hive is composed of three different 

 individuals, viz. : one female, called the Queen Bee, who is 

 the sovereign ; a number of males called Drones, who rep- 

 resent the peers ; and a large number of working-bees, 

 which are also females, but of an imperfect organization. 



The Queen Bee has a slender body, armed with a sting, 

 and very short wings. The drones are larger and thicker ; 

 they have long wings, but no stings, and consequently are 

 harmless. The working bees are smaller than either, but 

 are by far the most numerous ; in a large hive, their num- 

 ber is not unfrequcntly from twelve to fifteen thousand, and 

 sometimes more. They are the proletarians in that mon- 

 archy, and their business is to nurse the young ones, to 

 build the combs, and to collect the pollen and nectar of 

 flowers, with which they prepare their honey and wax. All 

 these materials which they collect they carry home in their 

 fossa, a spoon-like excavation in their hind legs. They, 

 like their queen, are armed with a sting. 



The Queen Bee is not only the sovereign, but also the 

 mother of the hive, and it is probably because all look to 

 her as the only one capable of propagating the race that 

 she is held in such high estimation. Her progeny is enor- 

 mous, for she lays eggs to the number of several thousands. 

 But who is the father of this immense brood has been a 

 question of dispute for ages, and is still not satisfactorily 

 settled. Naturalists have always supposed the drones en- 

 titled to the parentage, as they are the only males in the 

 establishment ; but Reaumure, and many others who have in- 

 defatigably watched the manoeuvres of the Queen Bee, both 

 night and day, have never yet been able to detect her in 

 any act of copulation. The queen has even been confined 

 in a glass hive with the drones, separate from the workers, 

 but no intercourse took place, and all died a few days after- 

 ward. Huber gives as his opinion that the queen has in- 

 tercourse with the drones when taking flight with them in 



