HYMENOPTERA. 



601 



habitations in societies of fifty or sixty, but sometimes two or lliree hmidred individuals : the society is, however, 

 broken up at the approach of winter [like that of the Wasps]. The males are distinguished by their small size, the 

 mandibles narrower, bidendate, and bearded, and the body often differently coloured. The females are the largest, 

 and have the mandibles spoon-shaped, as they are also in the neuters, which are intermediate in size between the two 

 others. R^-aumur and Huber have observed two varieties amongst the neuters, differing in size from the ordinary 

 ones : according to the latter author, several of the workers which are produced in the spring, couple in June 

 with males which are produced from the common parent, and soon afterwards deposit eggs, which produce only 

 males, which fecundate the females which only appear towards the end of the summer, and which are destined to 

 become the foundresses of fresh colonies in the following year ; all the rest perish. These females, which survive 

 the winter, employ the first fine days in spring to commence their nest, which is formed in the earth, often at one 

 or even two feet deep. One species, B. lapidaria, builds it on the surface of the ground, under stones. The cavi- 

 ties in which these nests are formed, are vaulted with earth and moss, which the Bees card with their hind legs. 

 A layer of rough wax lines the interior of the nest. Sometimes an opening is merely made into the bottom of the 

 nest, but sometimes it is one or two feet long, and lined with moss. A layer of leaves lines the floor of the nest, 

 on which the female deposits masses of brown wax, their inner spaces being destined to inclose the eggs and 

 larvae. These larvae there live in society until the period when they are ready to change to pupae, when they separate, 

 and each forms for itself a silken cocoon of an oval form, attached to each other vertically, the pupae being always 

 head downwards ; hence they always make their escape out of the bottom of the cocoon on arriving at the imago 

 state. Reaumur asserts that the larvae feed upon the wax which forms their abode ; but in the opinion of Huber, 

 it simply protects them from the cold ; the food of these larvae consisting of a large supply of pollen paste moist- 

 ened with honey, with which the pupae provide them : there are, moreover, found in the nests two or three small 

 cups of honey always open. 



The larvae appear four or five days after the eggs are deposited, and undergo their changes in the months of May 

 and June. The workers remove the wax around the cocoon in order to facilitate the escape of the Bee. It has 

 been supposed that these produced only neuters, but we have seen above that they also produce males. These 

 workers assist the female in her works. The number of the cocoons, which serve for the abode of the larvae and 

 pupae, increases, forming irregular layers of cells, one above another, on the sides of which the brown matter, which 

 Reaumur names patc^e, is ordinarily found. The wax which these insects make, has, according to Huber, the 

 same origin as that of the Domestic Bee, being only an elaborated kind of honey, which exudes from between the 

 segments of the abdomen ; several females live on good terms together in the same nest ; the females are far less 

 productive than the queen of the hive. [The species are very numerous. Types, Apis muscorttm, Linn., the Moss- 

 carder Humble Bee] ; Apis lapidaria [the Lapidary Humble Bee, which builds amongst stones, but also uses moss] ; 

 and A. tcrrestris, [which builds in the ground without using moss. The females of some Humble Bees are desti- 

 tute of apparatus for carrying pollen paste on the hind legs, and are consequently considered as parasites. They 

 form the genus Psithyrus, St. Farg., changed by Newman to Apat/ius.] 



The other Social Bees have no spurs at the extremity of the posterior tibiae. 



Apis, Linn., — 

 The workers of which have the basal joint of the hind tarsi oblong, and furnished on the inside with transverse 

 rows of short hairs. 

 Apis mellifica, Linn., or common Hive Bee, is much smaller and more oblong than the Humble Bee ; the body 



Fig. 124.— Queen Bee. 



Fig. 125. — Neuter Bee. 



Fig. 123. — Drone Bee. 



is clothed with a plush in some parts, and its colours are but little varied ; the Hive consists of neuters or Workers, 

 of which the number is from 15,000 to 20,000, or even sometimes 30,000,— of about 600 or 800, or even sometimes 

 more than 1000 males, and which are commonly called Drones, and generally of a single female, which the ancients 

 called the King, and the moderns term the Queen. The workers, smaller than the other individuals, have 

 12-jointed antenna and 6-jointed abdomen ; the basal joint of the hind tarsi dilated into a pointed ear at the outer 

 basal angle, and covered on the inside with a short, fine, close silken coating, and armed with a sting. The female 

 exhibits the same characters, but the workers have the abdomen shorter, the mandibles spoon-shaped, without 

 teeth ; the outside of their hind tibis are also furnished with the pollen basket ; the coating of the basal joint of 

 the hind tarsi has seven or eight transverse stria. The males and females are larger, with the mandibles notched 

 beneath the tip, and pilose ; the proboscis is shorter, especially in the males. These differ from the two other 

 kinds in having 13-jointed antennae ; the head rounded ; the eyes large, and united on the crown ; the mandibles 

 smaller and more hairy ; the want of a sting ; the four hind feet short. 



The ventral segments of the workers, with the exception of the first and last, have within two pockets, where the 

 wax is secreted and moulded into plates, which are discharged between the ventral segments. The wax, according 



