58 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



returns and soon begins her duties of laying eggs. The 

 drones do not gather honey and take no part in the house- 

 hold duties of the hive, but live idly upon the food col- 

 lected by the workers. After the queen is fertilized and 

 there is no more use for the drones, the workers fall upon 

 them, sting them to death and drag out their dead bodies. 

 Although the worker bees are imperfect females, in- 

 asmuch as the development of the reproductive system 

 has been arrested, there are few insects which possess so 

 many wonderful adaptations of structure for their varied 

 activities. Their mandibles are furnished with smooth 

 edges, devoid of teeth, and especially fitted for moulding 

 wax. The maxillae and lower lip are modified to form a 

 sucking tube, through which nectar is drawn from flowers. 

 This nectar passes into the honey-sac or crop which 

 is an enlargement of the alimentary canal just in front of 

 the stomach; here it is converted into honey which is 

 regurgitated into the cells of the comb. 

 . The legs of the worker bee, in addition to their adaptation 

 for walking and the pads and claws on the feet which fit 

 them for climbing up either smooth or rough surfaces, 

 show a number of interesting modifications for various 

 other functions. One of these is the antenna cleaner. 

 On the joint beyond the tibia, the metatarsus, is a semicir- 

 cular notch which is lined by a very even row of spines, 

 and at the lower end of the tibia there is a movable ap- 

 pendage which can be fitted over this notch so as to form 

 a nearly circular space about the diameter of the antenna. 

 When the antenna becomes covered with pollen or other 

 material the bee throws its fore leg over it and pulls it 

 through the antenna cleaner, thus stripping off the for- 

 eign material. The antenna cleaner is found also in the 

 queen and drone and is common among Hymenoptera in 

 general. The middle leg of the worker is fitted with a 



