THE WEB OF LIFE 339 



THE BEE-HIVE 



We are probably nearer the truth in thinking of the 

 bee-hive as a large family rather than as a society, but 

 this makes little difference, for whatever the nature of 

 the communal life may be it is certainly far away from 

 anything human. It is run on predominantly instinctive 

 lines, whereas a human society is predominantly intelli- 

 gent. Comparisons between the bee-hive and the city 

 are apt to be fallacious analogies. 



So much has been written in regard to the life of the 

 bee- hive that we shall not do more than call attention to 

 a few essential features. It may be more useful to con- 

 sider the question of evolution. 



As every one knows, the hive shows polymorphism. 

 There are the fertile females or queens ; the males or 

 drones ; and the sterile females or workers a sort of 

 third sex. These three types differ in many details, and 

 it is noteworthy that since, the drones develop from un- 

 fertilized ova having a mother but no father their 

 inheritance of male reproductive organs and masculine 

 secondary characters must be handed on through the 

 queens. Besides the structural polymorphism there is 

 considerable division of labour. The queens and drones 

 are wholly reproductive ; the workers may be foragers, 

 who go afield collecting, or nurses who attend to the queen 

 and the young. The workers have finely developed brains, 

 better than those of the queen, probably because more 

 exercised, and they are distinctively females, being occa- 

 sionally fertile. Both queens and workers develop from 

 fertilized ova, the difference in result apparently depend- 

 ing on the quantity and quality of food given to the grubs. 

 In short, every worker is a potential queen, arrested at a 



