Social Bees and Wasps 



much of the honey-bee's so-called intelligence has been 

 fostered by man ; but, putting aside man's agency, the 

 honey-bee community, as shown by the wild bees, is 

 worthy of close study. 



Let us examine a hive that we may learn something 

 of its industrious inmates. Industrious the majority of 

 them certainly are, but there is one kind of individual in 

 every hive who leads a lazy, often useless, life. His very 

 name denotes his uselessness : he is called a drone. The 

 drones are the males. They are always more stoutly 

 built and more hairy than their sisters. Moreover, they 

 are never furnished with any of the special structures for 

 carrying pollen, making or moulding wax, etc., as are the 

 workers. The drones perform one function and one only 

 during their lives : they mate with the queen bee, when 

 necessary. As there is only one queen in each hive and 

 some hundreds of drones, it follows that the majority of 

 drones are simply loafers. 



The workers, though really undeveloped females, are 

 practically sexless and, on this account, are often called 

 neuters. They are the smallest, neatest members of the 

 community, but they are beautifully adapted for the work 

 they are called upon to perform, such as building the food 

 and brood cells ; gathering, storing and preparing the 

 honey ; nursing the young ; cleaning, ventilating, warming, 

 repairing and guarding the hive. 



Needless to say, the most important member of the 

 community is the queen. She is a fully developed female, 

 with a slender, well-proportioned body, about half as large 

 again as the workers. She lays the eggs from which the 

 future stock of the hive will arise ; this, in the case of the 

 queen honey-bee, is her sole function. Accordingly she, 

 like the drones, is unprovided with special structures 

 necessary for carrying out the general work of the com- 

 munity. She gathers no food, nor does she construct any 

 part of her nest, thereby differing from the queens of the 

 bumble-bees and social wasps. 



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