DOMESTICATED INSECTS 



2 53 



developed females, specialized in various ways so as to be able to 

 perform efficiently the varied duties necessary to the maintenance 

 of the community (fig. 1183). The queen is comparatively large, 

 with slender body, short wings, and a curved sting. Maternity 

 is her sole function, and she is fed and tended with the greatest 

 assiduity by the workers. Except for the nuptial flight, and 

 when migrating with a " swarm " to fresh quarters, she does not 

 leave the hive. Only a single queen is tolerated by workers 

 in the same community, and if one should happeji to emerge 

 from a ''royal cell " while the reigning queen is still in the hive 

 a duel to the death en- 

 sues. If a queen should 

 intrude from outside the 

 result may be similar, 

 or the workers may mob 

 the interloper, though 

 they will not sting her, 

 and death by starvation 

 or suffocation is com- 

 monly her fate. A 

 queen is astonishingly 

 fertile, and under fa- 

 vourable circumstances 

 is capable of laying 

 from two thousand to 

 three thousand eggs in 

 a day. Some of these are unfertilized, and develop into drones, 

 but the majority are fertilized, and are usually destined to pro- 

 duce females, though it is not impossible that some of these 

 also may give rise to drones. The life of a queen extends 

 over four or five years. 



The stingless drones are smaller and stouter than the queen, 

 and distinguished by the enormous size of their compound eyes. 

 They do absolutely no work, but their presence is patiently 

 submitted to until the end of the summer, because a minute 

 percentage of them are destined to become the fathers of com- 

 munities. At the approach of autumn, when food is becoming 

 scarce, the drones are mercilessly expelled from the hive, or 

 even, according to some authorities, ruthlessly slaughtered. 



The workers are smaller than the drones, and distinguished 



Fig. 1183. Honey-Bee (Apis mellifica], enlarged 

 A, Queen; B, worker; c, drone. 



