HYMENOPTEKA. 319 



a sonorous and buzzing sound, have no palettes on their legs, the 

 hairs of their brushes are not appropriated to the work of gather- 

 ing, their mandibles are shorter, and they have no aculeis, or 

 sting, which is the working bee's weapon. 



The female, or queen (Fig. 313), is smaller than the male, and 

 has a longer body than the working bees, and the wings, shorter 

 in proportion, cover only the half of its body, whereas with the 

 other bees they cover it entirely. The only part she has to 

 play is that of laying eggs, and so she has no palettes and 

 brushes. The sovereign is, as suits her supreme rank, exempted 

 from all work. She is always escorted by a certain number of 

 working bees, who brush her, lick her, present honey to her with 

 their trunks, save her every kind of fatigue, and compose a train 

 worthy of her feminine majesty. One very remarkable fact is 

 that only one queen lives in each hive. Perfect sovereign of this 

 tiny state, she rules over a people of some thousands of workers. 

 It is not rare to find twenty thousand working bees in a hive, 

 and all submissively obey their sovereign. The number of males 

 is scarcely one-tenth part of that of the working bees ; and they 

 only live about three months. The workers represent the active 

 life of the community. 



" The exterior of a hive," says M. Victor Rendre, " gives the 

 best idea of this people, essentially laborious. From sun-rise to 

 sunset, all is movement, diligence, bustle ; it is an incessant series 

 of goings and comings, of various operations which begin, con- 

 tinue, and end, to be recommenced. Hundreds of bees arrive 

 from the fields, laden with materials and provisions ; others cross 

 them and go in their turn into the country. Here, cautious 

 sentinels scrutinise every fresh arrival ; there, purveyors, in a 

 hurry to be back at work again, stop at the entrance to the hive, 

 where other bees unload them of their burdens ; elsewhere it is a 

 working bee which engages in a hand-to-hand encounter with a rash 

 stranger ; further on the surveyors of the hive clear it of every- 

 thing which might interfere with the traffic or be prejudicial to 

 health ; at another point the workers are occupied in drawing out 

 the dead body of one of their companions ; all the outlets are 

 besieged by a crowd of bees coming in and going out, the doors 

 hardly suffice for this hurrying busy multitude. All appears 



