THE ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS T5 



chance two queens meet, a conflict begins at once, and the 

 usual result is the death of one of them. This is often spoken 

 of as due to the jealousy of the queens, but it may have a 

 meaning in connection with the necessity the community is 

 under of sending out swarms to maintain a separate existence. 

 The sting of the queen is used only in these battles and 

 in slaying the young queens. At the end of the swarming 

 season the workers set upon the drones and kill them, casting 

 their dead bodies out of the hive. The queens live for several 

 years, depositing two or three thousand eggs a day during a 

 part of the season. The workers live, as a rule, less than two 

 months. 



The wax of which the cells of the comb are composed is 

 secreted in the form of thin plates in " wax-pockets " beneath 

 some of the abdominal somites. While preparing this, full- 

 fed workers hang motionless to the cells in the upper part of 

 the hive, and in about twenty-four hours the wax appears. 

 This is removed by other workers and is used in construc- 

 tion. Honey is made for food for the young and for winter 

 consumption of the colony. The pollen of flowers is brought 

 to the hive in " pollen-baskets," clear spaces surrounded by 

 hairs on the outer side of the hind tibiae. The basal joints of 

 the hind tarsi are much enlarged, and are used as brushes 

 to gather the pollen. 



Bumblebees and Guest-Bees. The bumblebees (Bom'bus, 

 Fig. 45) are social bees, having homes in fields, in deserted 

 mouse-nests and similar places. The nest is begun early in 

 the spring by a female which has wintered, and, as with the 

 social wasps, the burdens of the home are turned over to the 

 young workers when they emerge. Late in the season other 

 females and males appear, but there is no swarming as with 

 the honey-bee. On the approach of cold weather the workers 

 and males die. The honey made is strong-smelling, but much 

 sought after by boys in the country, perhaps as much for the 



