APIS MELLIFICA. 



the abdomen are of a deeper and brighter yellow, and are 

 sometimes orange ; the head is smaller than that of the un- 

 prolific female, and the tongue is shorter and more slender ; 

 her mandibles are notched and her sting is curved ; but the 

 most obvious distinctive character is the proportional length of 

 the abdominal segment of the body, which lodges the genera- 

 tive apparatus, and which is of an elongate conical form, ta- 

 pering rather sharply to the anus. The male bee is readily 

 distinguished by the short and thick form of his body, which 

 is obtuse at each extremity. He has no sting. The workers, 

 like the queen, are armed with a sting, but it is straight and 

 proportionally larger and stronger. The workers are essen- 

 tially females in their internal structure, but their growth is 

 arrested before arriving at the period when the full develop- 

 ment of the sexual system takes place, and they consequently 

 are smaller than either the queen or the drones, and their 

 colors are less bright. According to Huber, there are two va- 

 rieties of laborers, one of a large size, which he calls " abeilles 

 cirieres" or makers of wax ; the other or smaller variety he 

 terms " abeilles nourrices" or nurse bees, whose crop or first 

 stomach is not capable of the distention requisite for collecting 

 honey, but whose office it is to build the combs and cells, after 

 the foundation has been laid by the cirieres, and to feed the 

 larvaB. 



It is also stated that there are two kinds of drones, one not 

 larger than the workers, the other as above described. And 

 Huber has described another variety of the inmates of the hive, 

 which he terms " black bees" and which are supposed to be 

 the superannuated workers. 



The swarm thus composed commonly leaves the hive in 

 the heat of the day, and often immediately after a shower. 

 It is supposed that the queen takes the lead, and she ever 

 afterwards exercises an inscrutable influence over all the oper- 

 ations. Perhaps a stronger proof that instincts do not ne- 

 cessarily depend on physical conformation is not afforded by 

 any phenomenon in natural history, than by the effects which 

 the loss or death of the queen produces on the laborers. This 

 event does not deprive them of any organ, or paralyze any 

 limb ; yet the moment they are conscious of her loss, all their 

 labors are interrupted and forsaken, and unless another queen 

 be provided, they join another hive, or perish from inanition. 



The flight of the swarrn is directed to some neighboring 



5 



