TRACHEATA 387 



eggs laid by the queen, who can lay at will either fertilised 

 or unfertilised ova. 



During the winter the queen-bee and the workers live upon 

 the food stored up in the hive ; when spring returns she 

 deposits eggs, first in the cells of the workers and then of the 

 drones. After a time certain large royal cells are constructed, 

 and in each of these she lays a fertilised egg ; the larvae which 

 proceed from these eggs receive a richer nourishment and 

 become queens. The drones take twenty-four days to de- 

 velope, the workers twenty, and the queens sixteen. Before 

 the eldest of the royal pupae gives rise to a queen in the 

 imaginal state, the queen mother with a number of the workers 

 leave the hive and swarm. Thus a new colony arises. The 

 young queens fight until all but one are killed, or the others 

 swarm ; the victorious one remains as queen of the hive. Soon 

 after the metamorphosis is complete the queen is fertilised by a 

 drone whilst flying in the air. The drone immediately dies, 

 and the queen, which has only been fertilised once, can con- 

 tinue to lay fertilised ova for several years. 



A hive may number as many as twenty to thirty thousand 

 individuals, of which the drones do not form more than one 

 per cent. 



Bonibus, the humble-bee, makes underground nests which 

 contain from fifty to two hundred individuals. This genus 

 does not make cells, but lays its eggs in a mass of pollen 

 accumulated in the centre of the nest; the larvae eat their 

 way through this, and ultimately turn into pupae. A single 

 fertilised female survives the winter, and inaugurates a new 

 colony in the following year. 



