1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



127 



presence of four such protuberances would 

 liinder the larva they are pushed into the 

 body Uke the finger of a glove turned in un- 

 til the tip of the finger is just below the 

 surface of the glove. At the same time 

 that these infolded pouches are formed from 

 the body- wall, the rudiments of the future 

 tracheae of the wing can be seen. These in- 

 folded wings increase in size during the lar- 

 val stage; but since they do not extend be- 

 yond the body-wall they "become folded. 



During the pupa stage when the young 

 developing bee ceases to take food, and is 

 sealed up by the workers, the wings gradu- 

 ally unfold outside of their pouches, due to 

 increased blood-pressure, and go through va- 

 rious changes until they reach the adult condi- 

 tion. From the method of formation it will 

 be seen that each wing consists of two 

 membranes. This outfolded pouch is, in the 

 early stage, filled with the blood, and tra- 

 cheae grow out into it. Thickenings appear 

 on the membranes, which ultimately become 

 the veins or nervures of the adult wing. At 

 a later stage the layers corresponding to the 

 future upper and lower surfaces of the wings 

 become closely applied, and fuse, except along 

 those lines where tracheae are present; here 

 also the blood circulates, and these lines 

 form part of the future veins. 



In many insect wings each vein marks the 

 location of a branch of the tracheae in the 

 developing wing, but this is not true for 

 hymenoptera. In the pupal wing of the 

 bee there are three tracheal branches com- 

 ing from the thorax along the radius, cubi- 

 tal, and anal veins (see Art. I. for the loca- 

 tion of these veins). The first and third of 

 these follow the veins regularly; but the 

 one beginning in the cubital vein passes 

 fdong the medio- cubital cross- vein and there 

 divides, the anterior branch following the 

 vein radius-one, and the posterior being 

 found on the outer portion of the medial 

 vein. This is of importance since it indi- 

 cates that, in the hymenoptera, changes have 

 taken place in the development which make 

 it hard to homologize the veins of the in- 

 sects of this group with other insect orders. 



The entire surface of the wings is covered 

 by very short hairs with an expanded base, 

 while near the bases the hairs are compara- 

 tively long. The cuticle of the wing in the 

 pupa stage was, of course, composed of liv- 

 ing cells; but as the insect reaches its adult 

 condition these dry up and nothing remains 

 but the cell membranes. Careful micro- 

 scopic examination will reveal some of the 

 boundaries of these cells although they have 

 ceased to be living units. 



In the development of the wing the size of 

 the cell in which the pupa is placed is a very 

 important factor in determining the shape 

 of the adult wing. If the cell is small the 

 wing can not become wide; and to give the 

 proper amount of wing surface it becomes 

 relatively longer. If, on the other hand, the 

 cell is large, e. g. a drone-cell, the wing be- 

 comes wider and relatively shorter. This 

 was shown to be true by a long series of 

 measurements of the veins M and m. The 



vein m is about twice as long as M, but the 

 ratio varies all the way from 1 : L7 to 1:2 6. 

 For bees in large cells and with wide wings 

 the ratio was less than for bees from small 

 cells and with long wings, and the relative 

 widths and lengths are in inverse proportion 

 to each other within certain limits. 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING QUEENS 

 REARED FROM THE BEST OF STOCK. 



Improving the Quality of your Bees; that Two- 

 hundred-dollar Root Queen. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



How many times during the last few 

 years the different writers for our bee jour- 

 nals have told us the necessity of keeping 

 young prolific queens in all our hives if we 

 expect to get good returns! But how sel- 

 dom have they told us of the importance of 

 having those queens reared from the best 

 honey-gathering strains of Italians that 

 could possibly be found ! This I consider 

 one of the most essential things connected 

 with successful bee-keeping; and as I have 

 had some letters of inquiry since the Nov. 

 1st issue of Gleanings, in regard to the 

 kind of bees I keep, the particular sti-ain of 

 Italians, and what I consider the principal 

 requirements in order to secure a large sur- 

 plus of honey, and several other questions 

 of less importance, I will try to answer 

 some of them through the medium of 

 Gleanings. 



First I will say that, of all the thousands 

 of Italian queens that I have bought and 

 reared since their first importation to this 

 country, I have never sold a queen in my 

 life, and I never expect to. We buj^ and 

 rear only what queens we want for our own 

 use ; so hereafter, when I speak of the strain 

 of bees we keep, or the strains of others, 

 don't for one minute think that I am in any 

 way interested in selling queens. 



We now have what might be called a com- 

 bination strain of bees, as they have been 

 bred for nearly twenty years from the best 

 honey-gathering strains of Italian bees that 

 money could buy; and during this time I 

 have thrown out every queen whose bees 

 were poor honey-gatherers; cross or vicious 

 in handling, addicted to excessive swarm- 

 ing, or were restless in winter quarters, 

 wasting themselves away and coming out 

 weak in the spring. All such colonies have 

 been marked, and their queens superseded 

 the following summer. In this way we 

 have acquired as fine a strain of bees as 

 there is in the United States. 



Prof. Frank Benton, of Washington, D. C, 

 spent a day with us last summer; and after 

 carefully looking over our apiary he said 

 that, in all his travels through the United 

 States, including Southern California, he 

 had never seen so large an apiary nor one 

 which had a finer strain of Italian bees. I 

 speak of this simply to let the readers of 

 Gleanings know what can be accomplished 



