SOCIAL INSECTS in 



is constantly being replenished during fine weather, to be drawn 

 upon when it is wet. Old brood-cells may be enlarged for the 

 same purpose, but are never put to their original use a second 

 time. 



For one species of Humble- Bee (Bombus ruderatus] a remark- 

 able arrangement has been described. It is said that in every 

 nest one bee is told off as a " trumpeter ". This individual 

 sounds reveilU at from 3 to 4 a.m., rousing her fellows to the 

 labours of the day, and if removed is replaced by another. The 

 habit of storing food, existing to some extent in Humble- Bees, 

 is carried much further in the Honey- Bee (Apis melliftca) and 

 its numerous relatives, and has probably had much to do with the 

 evolution of the complex social life which these exhibit. It 

 enables a community to live on through the unfavourable season 

 of the year, thus becoming permanent, -and this continuity has 

 rendered possible division of labour to a greater degree, being 

 at the same time associated with well-marked differences between 

 the castes, so far as queen and workers are concerned. The 

 former is of comparatively large size, and her only duty is to 

 produce eggs, while the varied labours of the hive fall to the 

 lot of her smaller sisters. The community is only temporary 

 as regards the drones, none of which survive the winter, but are 

 replaced by a fresh set which hatch out the following year. A 

 few further details regarding the Honey- Bee will be given in a 

 later section. 



The Social WASPS ( Vespidce) live in communities which, so 

 far as at present known, exist for one season only, as in Humble- 

 Bees, to which they present a further resemblance in the fact 

 that the workers are not markedly unlike the queen, and are more 

 or less capable of laying eggs. The building -material, however, 

 is not wax but a sort of paper, made by chewing woody matter 

 and mixing it with a fluid secreted by certain glands of the 

 mouth-region. We may take to illustrate the annual cycle one 

 of three British species (Vespa Germanica, fig. 1096) in which 

 the nest is constructed underground. The foundress queen begins 

 work in spring, making a small number of cells in the place which 

 is to be the top of the nest, and depositing an egg in each. The 

 cells are neither stored nor closed. Her next task consists in 

 feeding the grubs as they hatch out, first with honey or fruit- 

 juice, and later with the bodies of insects, especially flies. By 



