40 



ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



31. Other duties of worker bees. Bees, we have also learned 

 (28), bring in large quantities of pollen packed in the pollen baskets 

 of the hind legs, and in gathering pollen a considerable amount 

 clings to the head and other parts of the body. Worker bees also 

 bring in from the buds of trees a brown, gummy substance called 

 bee glue or propolis wlu'ch they use to close up crevices in the inside 

 of the hive. In most hives, too, certain bees seem to be detailed 

 to act as soldiers to keep out individuals from another swarm or 

 other marauders which might raid their stores of food. During the 

 busy summer season a worker usually lives only a month or two. 



Certainly enough has been said to convince any one that a bee 

 colony is a wonderful social community, organized more com- 

 pletely, so far as division of labor is concerned, than many a human 

 community. Is it a monarchy ruled by the queen, or a democracy 

 controlled by the workers? The latter is more probably the case. 

 Yet we can hardly imagine how the thousands of individuals can 

 work together in such a helter-skelter way and accomplish such 

 wondrous results. 1 



32. Life history of the honeybee. The eggs of the bee 

 are tiny white objects, shaped more or less like a banana. 

 A single egg is fastened by the queen mother at the bottom 



of each cell in the 



young larva just hatched from egg 



larva 



pupa 



FIG. 29. Stages in life history of honeybee. 

 (Cheshire). 



29). At the end of 

 three days the egg 

 hatches into a mi- 

 nute footless grub or 

 larva (Fig. 29) which 

 is fed for the first 

 few days on rich 

 food, produced in 

 the stomach of the 



1 For interesting descriptions of the work carried on in a beehive 

 see "A, B, C of Bee Culture," by A. I. and E. R. Root. 



