358 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



Needham was the first that observed the latter ; and their existence, M. 

 P. Huber tells us, has been confirmed by several observations of his father. 

 They are bred in cells as large as those of the common queens, from 

 which they differ only in size. Though they have ovaries, they have 

 never been observed to lay eggs. 1 Having never seen one of these, for 

 they are of very rare occurrence, my description must be confined to the 

 common female, the genuine monarch of the hive. 2 



1 Bonnet, x. P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi. 283. Reaumur (v. 373.) observes 

 that some queens are much larger than others ; but he attributes this difference 

 of their size to the state of the eggs in their body. 



2 As every reader is not aware of the differences of form, &c., that distinguish 

 the females, males, and workers from each other (I have seen the male mistaken for 

 a distinct species, and placed in a cabinet as Apis lagopoda L.), I shall here subjoin 

 a description of each. 



i. The body of the Female bee is considerably longer than that of either the 

 drone or the worker. The prevailing colour in all three is the same, black or 

 black-brown ; but with respect to the female this does not appear to be invariably 

 the case : for not to insist upon Virgil's royal bees glittering with ruddy or golden 

 spots and scales, where allowance must be made for poetic licence Reaumur 

 affirms, after describing some differences of colour in different individuals of this 

 sex, that a queen may always be distinguished, both from the workers and males, 

 by the colour of her body.* If this observation be restricted to the colour of some 

 parts of her body, it is correct ; but it will not apply to all generally (unless, as I 

 suspect may be the case, by the term body he means the abdomen), for, in all that 

 I have had an opportunity of examining, the prevailing colour, as I have stated it, 

 is the same. 



The head is not larger than that of the workers; but the tongue is shorter and 

 more slender, with straighter maxilla. The mandibles are forficate, and do not jut 

 out like theirs into a prominent angle ; they are of the colour of pitch with a red 

 tinge, and terminate in two teeth, the exterior being acute, and the interior blunt 

 or truncated. The labrum or upper lip is fulvous ; and the antenna are piceous. 



In the trunk, the tegula or scales that defend the base of the wings are rufo-piceous. 

 The wings reach only to the tip of the third abdominal segment. The tarsi and the 

 apex of the tibia are rufo-fulvous. The posterior tibiae are plane above, and covered 

 with short adpressed hairs, having neither the corbicula (or Marginal fringe of 

 hairs for carrying the masses of pollen) nor the pecten ; and the posterior plantce 

 have neither the brush formed of hairs set in striae, nor the auricle at the base. 



The abdomen is considerably longer than the head and trunk taken together, re- 

 ceding from the trunk, elongato-conical, and rather sharp at the anus. The dorsal 

 segments are fulvous at the tip : covered with very short, pallid, and, in certain 

 lights, shining adpressed hairs; the first segment being very short, and covered 

 with longer hairs. The ventral segments, except the anal, which is black, are ful- 

 vescent or rufo-fulvous, and covered with soft longer hairs. The vagina of the 

 spicula (commonly called the sting) is curved. 



ii. The Male bee, or drone, is quite the reverse of his royal paramour ; his body 

 being thick, short, and clumsy, and very obtuse at each extremity, f It is covered 

 also, as to the head and trunk, with dense hairs. 



The head is depressed and orbicular. The tongue is shorter and more slender 

 than that of the female ; and the mandibles, though nearly of the same shape, are 

 smaller. The eyes are very large, meeting at the back part of head. In the 

 space between them are placed the antenna and stemmata. The former consist of 



* Reaumur, v. 375. 



t Virgil seems to have regarded the drone as one of the sorts of kings or leaders 

 of the bees, when he says, speaking of the latter, 



" Ille horridus alter 



Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum." 



Georgia, iv. 1. 93. 





