254 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 
by many special characters. One of the most remarkable con- 
sists in the possession of a “ pollen basket ”, consisting of a hollow 
covered by transverse rows of hairs on the inner side of the 
first joint of the hind-foot (fig. 1184). There are also wax-glands 
on the under side of the abdomen, by which scales of wax are 
secreted, this being the chief building material (fig. 1185). The 
sting is straight, and the mouth-parts better developed than in 
queen and drones, the proboscis in 
particular being longer, and well 
adapted to probe the recesses of 
flowers in the search for nectar (fig. 
1186). These and other specializa- 
| tions are, of course, related to the 
fact that the workers discharge all 
the duties of the hive, egg-production 
| alone excepted. «A few of them may, 
Fig. 1184.—Part of Hind-leg of a Worker 
Bee, greatly enlarged, to show Pollen-Lasket, 
above which, on right side, may be seen a pin- Fig. 1185 —Under Side of a Worker Bee, enlarged, showing 
cer-like arrangement used for various purposes. plates of wax 
however, be fertile under exceptional circumstances, but in that 
case their eggs invariably hatch out into drones. Workers born 
late in the season may survive till the following year, but the 
rest live only for six or eight weeks. 
The waxen combs made by the workers for storage of food 
and reception of eggs are suspended vertically, and consist of six- 
sided cells, of which there is a set on either side of the comb, 
separated by a thin party-wall (fig. 1187). The long axes of these 
cells slope slightly outwards and upwards. The smallest of them 
are for storage and worker-brood, and there is a larger size in 
which the drones are reared. A comparatively small number of 
