The Life of the Bee 



life less assured, prosperity more limited, 

 than with our bees ; and wherever these 

 are introduced, the Meliponitae tend to 

 disappear before them. In both races 

 the fraternal idea has undergone equal 

 and magnificent development, save in 

 one point alone, wherein it achieves no 

 further advance among the Meliponitae 

 than among the limited offspring of the 

 humble-bees. In the mechanical organ- 

 isation of distributed labour, in the pre- 

 cise economy of effort; briefly, in the 

 architecture of the city, they display man- 

 ifest inferiority. As to this I need only 

 refer to what I said in section 42 of this 

 book, while adding that, whereas in the 

 hives of our Apitae all the cells are equally 

 available for the rearing of the brood and 

 the storage of provisions, and endure as 

 long as the city itself, they serve only one 

 of these purposes among the Meliponitae, 

 and the cells employed as cradles for the 



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