52 ARTHROPODA 



3. HYMENOPTERA 



The members of this order are readily distinguished 

 from other insects by the presence usually of four scale- 

 less transparent wings of which the hinder pair is the 

 smaller. The sting present at the end of the abdomen in 

 the females of many species is a structure not possessed by 

 the members of any other order. 



Honey Bee (Apis mellifica) 



Honey bees are social insects, dwelling in colonies com- 

 posed of three kinds of individuals. The males perform no 

 work and are therefore called drones. The imperfectly 

 developed females are named workers, because they per- 

 form all the labor. The perfect females of which only one 

 is allowed to remain in a hive are the queens. They do 

 nothing but lay the eggs. A colony after taking possession 

 of a hive or hollow tree forms out of wax secreted by the 



FIG. 32. Photograph of honeybees natural size, a, drone; b, worker; c, 

 queen. 



workers a comb of many hexagonal cells. During the 

 summer many of these cells are stored with honey for food 



