18 THE HOME OF THE BEES. 



Before speaking of the wild bees, let us briefly review the life 

 of the Honey bee. The queen bee having wintered over with 

 many workers, lays her eggs in the spring, first in the worker, 

 and, at a later period, in the drone-cells. Early in the summer 

 the workers construct the large, flask-shaped queen-cells, which 

 are placed on the edge of the comb, and in these the queen larvre 

 are fed with rich and choice food. The old queen deserts the 

 nest, forming a new colony. The new-born queen takes her mar- 

 riage flight high in the air with a drone, and on her return under- 

 takes the management of the hive, and the duty of laying eggs. 

 When the supply of queens is exhausted, the workers destroy the 

 drones. The first brood of workers live about six weeks in 

 summer, and then give way to a new brood. The queens, ac- 

 cording to Von Berlepsch, are known to live five years, and 

 during their whole life lay more than a million eggs. 



In the tropics, the Honey bee is replaced by the Meliponas 

 and Trigonas. They are minute, stingless bees, which store up 

 honey and live in colonies often of immense extent. The cells 

 of Melipona are hexagonal, nearly approaching in regularity 

 those of the Hive bee, while the honey cells are irregular, being 

 much larger cavities, which hold about one-half as much honey 

 as a cell of the Humble bee. " Gardner, in his travels, states 

 that many species of Melipona build in the hollow trunks of 

 trees, others in banks; some suspend their nests from the 

 branches of trees, whilst one species constructs its nest of clay, 

 jt being of large size." (F. Smith.) 



In a nest of the coal-black Trigona (Trigona carbonaria), from 

 eastern Australia, Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, found 

 from four hundred to five hundred dead workers, but no females. 

 The combs were arranged precisely similar to those of the com- 

 mon wasp. The number of honey-pots which were placed at 

 the foot of the nest was two hundred and fifty. Mr. Smith in- 

 clines to the opinion that the hive of Trigona contains several 

 prolific females, as the great number of workers can only be 

 thus explained, and M. Gueriu found six females in a nest of the 

 Tawny-footed Melipona (M. fulvipes). 



At home, our nearest ally of the true Honey bee, is the Hum- 

 ble bee (Bombus), of which over forty species are known to 

 inhabit North America. 



The economy of the Humble bee is thus : the queen awakens 

 in early spring from her winter's sleep under leaves or moss, 



