150 ANIMAL LIFE 



smaller than the queens and drones, and the last two differ 

 in the shape of the abdomen, or hind body, the abdomen of 

 the queen being longer and more slender than that of the 



FIG. 88. Honey-bee, a, drone or male ; b, worker or infertile female ; c, queen or 

 fertile female. 



male or drone. In a single community there is one queen, 

 a few hundred drones, and ten to thirty thousand workers. 

 The number of drones and workers varies at different 

 times of the year, being smallest in winter. Each kind of 

 individual has certain work or business to do for the whole 

 community. The queen lays all the eggs from which new 

 bees are born; that is, she is the mother of the entire 

 community. The drones or males have simply to act as 

 royal consorts ; upon them depends the fertilization of the 

 eggs. The workers undertake all the food-getting, the 

 care of the young bees, the comb-building, the honey-mak- 

 ing all the industries with which we are more or less 

 familiar that are carried on in the hive. And all the 

 work done by the workers is strictly work for the whole ' 

 community ; in no case does the worker bee work for itself 

 alone ; it works for itself only in so far as it is a member 

 of the community. 



How varied and elaborately perfected these industries 

 are may be perceived from a brief account of the life his- 

 tory of a bee community. The interior of the hollow in 

 the bee-tree or of the hive is filled with " comb " that is, 

 with wax molded into hexagonal cells and supports for 

 these cells. The molding of these thousands of symmet- 



