82 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



The old queen is now ageing fast, her fertility 

 is falling off and hardly sufficient eggs are laid 

 to keep the workers busy. At this time some of 

 the latter may take to laying eggs and, as is the 

 case with Apis, such eggs always produce males. 

 The aged monarch is now fast becoming bald, 

 the hairs drop off, especially from the abdomen 

 and the middle of the thorax. At the time of 

 the emergence of the young queens the store of 

 honey food is at its maximum as many as four 

 hundred cocoons containing thickened honey 

 have been found in one nest, for it is on the young 

 queens that the future of the race depends. Once 

 they are started in life the workers become list- 

 less, flowers grow scarce, often what is left of the 

 store food is soon consumed, one by one the bees 

 disappear, the old queen grows torpid and d^ops 

 asleep, and soon from this sleep there is no 

 awakening. 



At the beginning of this article we pointed out 

 the attractions which the humble-bee possesses, 

 in our opinion, over its allies, the honey-bee and 

 the wasp. It is altogether a more human and 

 a much less exasperating insect. It has none of 

 the cold, glittering efficiency of the wasp or the 

 maddening perfection of organisation of the 



