322 



ENTOMOLOGY 



FIG. 278. 



males with an atrophied reproductive system. They constitute 

 the vast majority in any colony and are the only kind that is 

 commonly seen out of doors. Upon the industrious workers 

 falls the burden of the labor; they build the comb, nurse the 

 young, gather food, clean and repair the nest, guard it from 

 intruders, control larval development, expel the drones 

 briefly, the workers alone are responsible for the general man- 

 agement of the community. Though hibernating workers live 

 eight or nine months, the other workers live but from five to 

 twelve weeks. 



The term queen is, of course, a misnomer, for the govern- 

 ment of the hive is anything but monarchial. The chief duties 

 of the queen, or mother, are simply to lay 

 eggs and to lead away a swarm. She is 

 able to deposit as many as 4,000 eggs in 

 twenty-four hours. After a single mat- 

 ing, the spermatozoa retain their vitality 

 in the spermatheca of the queen for three 

 or four years the lifetime of a queen. 

 The males, or drones, apart from their 

 occasional sexual usefulness, are of little 

 or no service, and their very name has 

 become an expression for laziness. 



The Comb. Wax, of which the comb 

 is built, is made from honey or sugar, 

 many pounds (twenty, according to 

 ber) of honey being required .to make 

 what enlarged. A f t e r one pound of wax. The workers, gorged 



CHESHIRE. . , ,. - 



with nectar, cling to one another in a 

 dense heated mass until the white films of wax appear under- 

 neath the abdomen (Fig. 102) ; these are transferred to the 

 mouth by means of the wax-pincers (Fig. 263, C) of the hind 

 legs and are masticated with a fluid, secreted by cephalic 

 glands, which alters the chemical composition of the wax and 

 makes it plastic. 



The workers now contribute their wax to form a vertical, 



