622 HYMENOPTERA. 



bees, the females perform all the labor; the males have no stings. 

 The species X. victima, is found in the United States, and bores 

 in the lower surface of white-pine structures. 



But the most important, and, indeed, the most interesting of the 

 family, is the Common Hive Bee, Apis mellijica^ (Lat. mel, 

 honey ; facio, to make.) The Hive includes three kinds; the 

 Female; the Male or Drone; and the Worker, (see Chart for 

 figures showing the relative size, &c., of each.) The bees col- 

 lect honey, pollen, and propolis, feeding their young with the 

 former two, and using the latter for filling up crevices in their 

 cells, and for the needed repairs. The wax is secreted by the 

 workers, and appears between the segments of the lower side of 

 the abdomen, in the form of small scales. 



Every hive is under the government of the Queen Bee. She 

 is lady paramount, and suffers no other queen to share her do- 

 minion. At the swarming season, the old queen becomes so 

 sadly disturbed by the encroachments of the young queens, that 

 she rushes forth from the hive, attended by a large body of her 

 subjects; thus, the first swarm is formed. In seven or eight 

 days afterwards, the queen next in age departs, also taking with 

 her a supply of ^subjects. When all the swarms have left the 

 original hive, the remaining queens fight until one gains the 

 throne. The Queen Bee lays about eighteen thousand eggs. 

 About eight hundred of these prove males or drones, and four or 

 five queens; the remainder are workers. The cells are six- 

 sided. Those in which the drones are hatched, are much larger 

 than the cells of the ordinary working bees. The royal cells 

 are much larger than any others, and are of an oval shape. 

 When a worker larva is placed in a royal cell, and fed in a 

 royal manner, it imbibes the " principles of royalty, "and becomes 

 a queen accordingly. This practice is resorted to if the Queen 

 Bee die, and there be no other queen to take her place. 



The form of the cells is such as to afford the greatest space 

 and strength, with the least amount of material. How the bees 

 are enabled to give them this form, unless by a divinely im- 

 planted instinct, it is difficult to tell. Three figures will admit 

 the junction of their sides without vacant spaces between them, 

 viz : the square, the equilateral triangle, and the hexagon, the 

 last being the strongest and most convenient. And this is the 

 very form in which the bees build their cells. The bottom of 

 each cell, on one side, meets three on the other, and is supported 

 by the divisions between them; and it is formed by three plates 

 that mret at an angle, which profound mathematical investigation 

 demonstrated to be the very angle which combines the greatest 



