176: ANTS, BEES AND WASPS 



the two needles slide up and down upon the director with the 

 greatest ease, but cannot be pulled asunder. The sting is con- 

 nected with special poison-glands, and as the bee thrusts her dart 

 into a victim the poison flows along a channel between the needles 

 and the director, drenching the blades with the fluid, rendering 

 this three-bladed sword the most deadly of insect weapons. 



The wax glands, six in number, are situated in the abdomen 

 of the worker, and when the wax is formed it passes out between 

 the segments on the under surface in the shape of delicate white 

 wafers. Heat, as well as a generous supply of food, is necessary 

 for its formation, and the bees when manufacturing the wax for 

 the combs, after absorbing a quantity of sweet syrup, cluster 

 closely together in the centre, the warmest place of the hive. 



The drone is a larger, bulkier insect than the worker bee, but 

 is her inferior in every way. His brain is imperfectly developed. 

 He has no pollen baskets, no wax-secreting organs, and, of course, 

 no sting. He is not provided with the brushes, combs, and wax- 

 nippers possessed by the worker, so is quite incapable of working 

 even if he would, while his tongue is too short to enable him to 

 gather nectar from the flowers. The drone is, in fact, entirely 

 dependent upon the worker for his livelihood ; he consumes a 

 large proportion of the honey and pollen set apart for the general 

 Use of the hive, besides being fed with bee-milk by the workers. 

 He is tolerated by the community just so long as he is necessary. 

 While there is any likelihood of a young queen requiring a mate 

 the drone is allowed to go his way and take his fill of the provisions 

 stored by the industrious workers ; but when summer is on the 

 wane he is no longer needed, and with sudden but organised 

 ferocity the bees arise and drive him from their midst. 



The workers do not sting the drones to death, as is commonly 

 supposed ; they drive them or drag them from the hive, after 

 nipping through one wing so that they will not be able to fly 

 back again ; and every drone larva and pupa is torn from its 

 cell and thrown over the edge of the alighting board. There is 

 stern reason in this general massacre of the drones, for in the 

 autumn and winter, when nectar and pollen are no longer to be 

 had, the stores in the hive must be economised. All will be needed 

 to feed those workers who, with the queen, will live through the 

 winter to start the Work of the colony in the following season. 



