CHAPTER IV 



ON CERTAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 

 WASPS AND BEES 



THERE is no better way to distinguish between 

 social wasps and social bees than by their habits, 

 difficult as these habits are at times to observe. 

 There are, of course, structural features of differen- 

 tial value, some connected with their divergent 

 activities ; for instance, the proboscis for sipping 

 the nectar of flowers is more complex in the bee 

 than in the wasp and, as a rule, longer. In one 

 genus, Euglossa, a tropical American bee, this 

 far surpasses the total body-length, and when the 

 insect is at rest projects behind the end of the 

 abdomen like an extended " sting/' Another 

 curious point is that, alone among the hymen- 

 optera, bees have feathered or plumose hairs. 

 To make these out, of course, requires a micro- 

 scope, but there they are and they are diagnostic. 

 It has been suggested that their feathered hairs 



are especially well adapted for carrying pollen, 



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