MEMBRANE-WINGED INSECTS. 



279 



stones and other things. Their communities consist of 

 from fifty to three hundred Bees. They contain three 

 kinds of individuals males, females, and neuters, of 

 which the females alone live through the whiter. There 

 is a special provision for their preservation. They have 

 a chamber distinct from the rest of the nest, and this is 

 lined with grass and moss, so that they may sleep there 

 through the winter secure against the cold. 



476. In the Hive Bees, we see the instincts in con- 

 struction and social organization exhibited in the most 

 remarkable manner. A community of Hive Bees con- 

 tains but a single perfect female, termed the Queen ; sev- 

 eral hundred males, called Drones ; and about twenty 

 thousand neuters, or Workers. In Fig. 216 you see the 

 three kinds of Bees, the upper one being the Queen, a 

 drone on the right, and a worker on the left. At the 



Fig. 216. Hive Bees. 



end of every summer, the Drones, which have no stings 

 to defend themselves, are all stung to death by the Work- 

 ers. The cells where the eggs are deposited are in the 

 central part of each comb, this being, of course, the warm- 

 est part of it. The Drones being larger than the Work- 

 ers, those cells in which the eggs are to produce Drones 



