2.14 THE MAEVEL OF INSECT LIFE. 



go from cell to cell putting an egg in each cell, the 

 deposition of eight hundred thousand eggs cannot be 

 accomplished in less than the four years which have 

 therefore been allotted to the queen. 



The male bee, commonly called the Drone, does no 

 work, and therefore is allowed but a very brief space of 

 existence. 



As to the Worker bees, each has its own special task, 

 and although when a number of bees are seen at work, 

 inextricable confusion seems at first to reign, a careful 

 inspection soon shoAvs that the vast multitude is governed 

 by the supremest order, and that, like soldiers in the field 

 or sailors on board their ship, each individual has its own 

 place and its own work. 



Some of these workers are told off for the purpose of 

 secreting wax, while others undertake the task of receiv- 

 ing the wax as it is produced, kneading it until it is 

 sufficiently plastic, and rearing the wonderful aggregations 

 of double cells which we call " combs." 



Other bees, again, attend on the queen, surround her 

 wherever she goes, feed her, and take care that every egg 

 that she lays is placed in a suitable cell. Another set of 

 bees act as nurses, taking upon them the charge of the 

 young grubs as soon as they are hatched, and feeding 

 them until they are ready for their change into the inter- 

 mediate or pupal stage of existence. 



A fifth order of worker bees go abroad to collect the 

 sweet juice of flowers and transform it into honey in 

 their crops, or to gather the pollen from ripened anthers, 



