36 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



ness to deposit an egg in each of the various wax cells of the 

 brood chamber. Queens have been known to lay 3000 eggs 

 in a single day, and since a queen may live as long as five 

 years, she may lay over 1,000,000 eggs during a lifetime. 

 The queen is therefore the mother of all the bees in a colony. 

 The distinguishing characteristics of drone or male bees 

 (Fig. 24) are their broad abdomens, the absence of a sting, 

 and their very large, compound eyes, which nearly meet 

 on the top of their heads. In numbers they vary at different 



FIG. 24. Drone, queen, and worker bee. 



times of the year, but during the summer there are usually 

 400 to 800 in a hive. 



We learned in our study of reproduction in plants that 

 egg-cells will not develop into seeds unless they are fertilized 

 by sperm-cells of pollen grains. Now in a beehive, an egg 

 will never develop into a queen-bee or a worker unless it 

 likewise is fertilized by a sperm-cell. The drones or male 

 bees supply these necessary sperm-cells. From the unfer- 

 tilized eggs, which a queen may lay, develop only drone bees. 

 In this respect these egg-cells of bees are strikingly different 

 from those of plants and of most animals. 



It is clear from the foregoing account that the queen and 

 drones carry on the reproductive functions of the colony, for 

 they are specially adapted to increase the number of bees 

 in a hive. To the workers, on the other hand, as we shall 

 now see, belong most of the nutritive functions of the colony. 



