BEES AND BEE CULTURE. 



1137 



posterior legs. Unlike both the queen and workers, their eyes 

 meet above, on top of the head, and they have no sting. When 

 they fly they make a great noise, and 

 though entirely powerless to do harm, 

 they often frighten the young bee-keeper 

 more than do the workers. The drone 

 organs (Fig. 4) are much like those of 

 other male insects. In coition the tube 

 forming the penis, and which holds the 



sperm-cells, turns inside out, when certain scale-like projections 

 point back. This is caught in the vulva of the queen and held 

 fast, so it is torn from the drone, causing 

 instant death. This is the white thread 

 which hangs to the queen for a day after 

 copulation, and which speaks certainly of her 

 success. 



The only function of the drones is to fecun- 

 date the queen, which act is always performed 

 while on the wing. Successful coition seems 

 to demand the fullest activity of the drones. 

 In flight the muscles are tense, the air-tubes 

 full ; and so the tension on the abdomen nec- 

 essary to extrude the male organ, and force 

 out the full measure of sperm-cells, is only 

 possible at such times. Hence fecundation 

 in confinement will probably never be desir- 

 . 4.-MALK GROANS, able, if practicable. 



The reason for so many drones is that the 

 queen may soon meet a drone when she flies forth, and so 

 escape danger from bird or other enemy. 



The drones are reared in the large cells, (Fig. 10, a) which 

 are one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and when capped reach 

 beyond the face of the comb, so they are a little more than one- 

 half of an inch long. Like all broad cells, the capping is convex, 

 while that of honey is concave. The projection of drone brood 

 makes it very conspicuous. The capping of brood is always darker 



than is that of honey. The eggs from which drones hatch are un- 



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