9G 



manner. This is the only honey-dew that falls : and 

 this never falls from a g; eater height than a branch, 

 where a cluster of these insects can fix themselves. 



Ants are as fond of this honey as bees. The 

 large black ants follow the insect which lives on 

 oaks and chesnut trees, the lesser attend those on the 

 elder. But as ants cannot suck up fluids like bees, 

 they wait just under the vine-fretters, in order to 

 suck the drop just as it falls. 



The vine-fretters afford most honey about mid- 

 summer, as the trees are then fullest of juice. The 

 trees nevertheless, though pierced to the sap in a 

 thousand places, do not seem to be hurt at all. 



The sting of a bee or wasp is a curious piece of 

 workmanship. It is a hollow tube, within which, 

 as in a sheath, are two sharp bearded spears. A wasp's 

 sting has eight beards on the side of eaeh spear, some, 

 what like the beards of fish-hooks. These spears in 

 the sheath, lie one with its point a little before that 

 of the other. One is first darted into the fleSh, 

 which being fixed, by means of its foremost beard , 

 the other strikes in too, and so they alternately pierce 

 deeper, the beards taking more and more hold iu the 

 flesh, afterward the sheath follows, to convey the poi- 

 son into the wound. -When the beards are lodged 

 deep in the flesh 5 bees often leave their stings be- 

 hind them, if they are disturbed before they have 

 time to withdraw their spears into the scabbard. 



The queen bee is somewhat larger, considerably 

 longer and oi a brighter red than others. Her office 

 is to direct, and lead the swarm, and to raise a new 

 breed. She brings forth ten, fifteen, or twenty thou- 

 sand young once in a year, so that she may literally be 

 said, to be the mother of her people. Iu a hive of 

 eight or ten thousand) there is usually but one queen, 

 bee. 



Drones, or males have no stings, and are larger 

 and darker coloured than the working bees. The 

 eggs for them are placed in a larger sort of cells, 

 They are also nurses to the young brood. 



