636 THE HIVE BEE. 



ment, the Durse-wasps are enabled to get at the grubs as they lie, or 

 rather hang, in their cells, with their heads downward. 



The grubs are fat, white, black-headed creatures, very well known to 

 fishermen, who find them excellent bait after they have been baked so 

 as to render them sufficiently hard to remain on the hook. When they 

 are about to enter the pupal state they close the mouths of their cells 

 with a silken cover, through which the black eyes are plainly visible, 

 and there wait until they emerge in the perfect state. The grubs are 

 fed with other insects, fruit, sugar, meat, or honey, the mingled mass 

 being disgorged from the stomachs of the nurses and thus given to 

 their charge. 



There are separate cells for males, females, and neuters, the former 

 two classes being produced only toward the end of autumn, so as to 

 keep up a supply for the succeeding year. 



There are, perhaps, few insects so important to mankind as those 

 which procure the sweet substance so well known by the name of 

 honey. Nearly all the honey-making Hymenoptera are furnished 

 with stings, and in many species the poison is fearfully intense. Some 

 of these insects, such as the Hive Bee, make waxen cells of raathemat- 



Female. Worker. 



The Hive Bee {Apis melUfica], 



ical accuracy, the larvae being placed in separate cells and fed by the 

 neuters. 



This useful little creature is so well known that a lengthened descrip- 

 tion of it would be useless. A merely general sketch will be quite suf- 

 ficient. 



The cells of the Bee are, as is well known, made of wax. This wax 

 is secreted in the form of scales under six little flai)s situated on the 

 under side of the insect. It is then pulled out by the Bee, and moulded 

 with other scales until a tenacious piece of wax is formed. The yellow 

 substance on the legs of the bees is the pollen of flowers. This is 

 kneaded up by the bees, and is called bee-bread. 



The cells are six-sided — a form which gives the greatest space and 

 strength with the least amount of material — but the method employed 

 by the Bees to give the cells that shape is not known. The cells in 

 which the drone or male Bees are hatched are much larger than those 

 of the ordinary or worker Bee. The edges of the cells are strengthened 



