HYSfENOPTERA. 599 



thousand to thirty thousand workers) have the privilege of enjoying themselves 

 and of doing no kind of work in the hive ; they arise from unfertilised eggs and 

 are killed in the autumn (slaughter of drones). The queen and the workers 

 live through the winter consuming the stored-up provisions, and kept warm by 

 the heat produced by the dense population of the hive. In the first days of 

 spring the queen deposits eggs, first in the workers' cells and later in the drone 

 cells. Some royal cells are then constructed, and at intervals she deposits a 

 fertilised egg in each of them. The larvae in the royal cells receive a richer 

 nourishment and royal food, and become sexually mature females (queens), 

 capable of copulating. Before the oldest of the young queens is hatched 

 sixteen days from the deposition of the egg is required for this, while the 

 workers develop in twenty days, the drones in twenty-four the queen-mother 

 leaves the hive with a part of the inhabitants (first swarm). The young queen 

 either kills all the other royal larvae and remains in the old hive, or if she is 

 prevented from doing this by the workers, and the population is still large 

 enough, she also leaves the old hive with a part of the workers before the 

 appearance of a second queen (second swarm). Soon after her metamorphosis 

 the young queen makes her marriage flight, and returns after impregnation to 

 the hive. The queen is only impregnated once in the course of her life, which 

 lasts four or five years ; she is henceforward able to produce male and female 

 offspring. If the wings of the queen are paralysed and she is unable to 

 copulate, she lays eggs which only give rise to drones ; the same is the case 

 with the fertilised queen in her old age, when the contents of the receptacu- 

 lum seminis is exhausted. Workers also may lay eggs which develop into 

 drones ; the Iarva3 destined to develop into workers may. if the food supply at 

 any early stage be abundant, become queens. As parasites in bee-nests may be 

 mentioned the death's head moth, the wax moth, the larva of the bee-wolf, 

 {Tricliodes apwrms), and the bee-louse (Braula CCBCO). 



The genera Melipona 111., Trigona Jur., comprise small American species of 

 bees ; they appear, however, to be less closely related to the genus Apis than 

 has been hitherto believed. With regard to the economy of the society, one of 

 the most striking deviations they present, is that the brood-cells are filled with 

 honey before the deposition of the eggs and afterwards closed, so that the just- 

 hatched grub is provided beforehand with all the food material (Fr. Miiller).. 

 The workers also prepare large reservoirs for the storage of the honey. Among 

 the former there are forms as in Bomlus t that do not build nests, but lay their 

 eggs in the nests of other species. 



