46 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



" And with their stores of gather'd glue contrive 

 To stop the rents and crannies of their hive. 

 No bird-lime, no Idean pitch, produce 

 A more tenacious mass of clammy juice."* 



An average hive will contain some 30,000 

 workers, 2,000 drones, and one queen, but in a 

 strongly stocked community these numbers may 

 be doubled or even trebled. The queen alone 

 lays eggs and is a fully functional female ; she 

 is bigger than the worker and her abdomen is 

 enlarged to accommodate her enormous ovary 

 which pours forth a ceaseless flow of eggs. The 

 hind legs of the queen are devoid of those modi- 

 fications which enable the workers to collect and 

 store the pollen, the wax glands again are re- 

 duced and apparently never used. The drone is 

 the male, he is bigger than the workers and the 

 queen, and is more stoutly built ; his hairs are 

 densely placed and short, his eyes are so large 

 that they meet on the top of the head, the hind 

 legs have no modifications for pollen-collecting, 

 etc., the antennae have an extra joint, his hum 

 is deeper and louder than that of the workers. 

 He has altogether a stronger and more virile 

 organism, and yet with the sole exception of 



* Georgic IV. 



