BEES 295 



merry one, for he has no functions which will justify 

 old age. Thus the Halictus bees, which burrow in the 



Y 



From ''Animate Creation " 



FIG. 105.. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) : a, queen (female) ; b, worker (sterile 

 female) ; c, drone (male) . The outline of the front of the head is shown above each 

 form. 



ground, hatch out male and female in the late summer. 

 The males die, but the females survive the winter, and 

 may be seen in the spring industriously making their 

 nests, without any assistance from the other sex. In 

 the case of the Anthop\ora bees, which construct holes 

 in banks and are the cliff-dwellers of the group, the 

 males may be observed to stand at the entrance of 

 the tunnels. They are easily recognized by the largely 

 yellow or white face, and it is this face which is exposed 

 as their round heads fill the orifice. These males are 

 in fact able to function as front doors, stepping aside 

 whenever a female desires to enter. In the case of the 

 social bees, such as the honeybee, there seems to be a 

 third sex, the worker. The workers are, however, 

 sterile females, while the drones are the males. The 

 queen bee is the egg-laying female. 



The males being comparatively worthless, it seems The sting 

 that Nature has not thought it worth while to protect 

 them with a sting. Only female bees (including workers) 

 can sting. The sting is a modification of the ovipositor 



