MEMBRANE-WINGED INSECTS. 279 
stones and other things. Their communities consist of 
from fifty to three hundred Bees. They contain three 
kinds of individuals — males, females, and neuters, of 
which the females alone live through the winter. There 
is a special provision for their preservation. They have 
a chamber distinct from the rest of the nest, and this is 
lined with grass and moss, so that they may sleep there 
through the winter secure against the cold. 
476. In the Hive Bees, we see the instincts in con- 
struction and social organization exhibited in the most 
remarkable manner. A community of Hive Bees con- 
tains but a single perfect female, termed the Queen; sev- 
eral hundred males, called Drones; and about twenty 
thousand neuters, or Workers. In Fig. 216 you see the 
three kinds of Bees, the upper one being the Queen, a 
drone on the right, and a worker on the left. At the 
Fig. 216.—Hive Bees. 
end of every summer, the Drones, which have no stings 
to defend themselves, are all stung to death by the Work- 
ers. The cells where the eggs are deposited are in the 
central part of each comb, this being, of course, the warm- 
est part of it. The Drones being larger than the Work- 
ers, those cells in which the eggs are to produce Drones 
