HYMENOPTERA OR BEES, ANTS, WASPS, ETC. 



57 



set of duties to perform in the economy of the hive. 

 The queen is larger than the drones or workers and has 

 a relatively larger and more elongated abdomen. She 

 is the fertile female, and her duties are limited to laying 

 eggs in the cells made by the workers. Notwithstanding 

 her name she is in no sense a ruler. The workers feed and 



PIG. 50. Head and tongue of worker bee magnified, a, antenna, or 

 feeler; m, mandible; g, gum flap, or epipharynx; mxp, maxillary palpus; 

 pg, paraglossa; mx, maxilla: Ip, labial palpus; I, ligula, or tongue; b, bouton, 

 or spoon of the same. (Reduced from Cheshire.) 



protect her, and become uneasy and demoralized if she 

 is taken away or dies, but she issues no orders to her 

 faithful attendants. Each queen is actuated by a deadly 

 hostility to every other queen, and if two queens happen 

 to come together there is a fight to the death. As the 

 young queen flies out of the hive she is followed by a 

 number of drones with one of which she mates; she then 



