r 



HYMENOPTEBA. 



317 



During the greater part of the year the population of our hives 

 s composed exclusively of two sorts of individuals the female, or 

 nother bee, called also the queen bee ; and the working bees, or 

 leuters, which are, properly speaking, females incompletely deve- 

 oped. A third kind of individuals, the males, called also drones, 

 ire generally not met with except from May to July. 



The working bees are the people, the crowd, the servum pecus, 

 ;he living force, the bee community. They are 

 ecognised by their small size, reddish brown 

 colour, and, above all, by the palettes and brushes 

 vith which the hind-legs are furnished. 



The three pairs of legs which are inserted in its Fio . 

 ;horax are its tools. The two hind- legs are 

 onger than the four front legs, and present on the exterior a 

 ;riangular depression, resembling a palette, which is surrounded 

 ?y stiff hairs, forming, as it were, the borders of a sort of basket, 

 n which the insect deposits the pollen of flowers. The broadest 

 Dart of the leg articulates with the tarsus, which is of a square 

 :orm, smooth on the exterior, and having hairs on its interior 



309. Working Lee 

 (Apis mellifica j. 



Fig. 310. Leg of a Bee (magnified.) 



Fig. 311.- 



magmfied). 



surface, which has caused it to be named the brush. The joint 

 s used for gathering the pollen ; it folds back on the leg 

 (_Fig. 310). and forms with it a sort of small pair of pincers ; and, 

 finally, the leg is terminated by five smaller articulations, the last 





