THE MAEYEL OF INSECT LIFE. 



CHAPTER III. 



HIVE BEES THEIR DISCIPLINE AND HARMONY. 



ON passing from the wild to the domestic Social Bees, 

 we find a contrast quite as well marked as between 

 a semi-savage and a civilised country. In the one, a sort 

 of happy-go-lucky system prevails, the cells being of no 

 very particular shape, jumbled together without the least 

 attempt at arrangement, space and material being treated 

 as if they were of no consequence, and each bee seeming 

 to act without reference to any other. 



In the nest of the Hive Bee, no matter what the species, 

 we find discipline, harmony, subordination of each insect 

 to the wants of the general community, and economy of 

 space and material carried to the last possible extreme. 

 Division of labour is also practised, though not to so 



