34 MANUAL OF THE APIART. 



FAMILY OP THE HONEY-BEE. 



The honey-bee belongs to the family Apidse, of Leach, 

 ■which includes not only the hive bee, but all insects which 

 feed their helpless young, or larvje, entirely on pollen, or honey 

 and pollen. 



The insects of this family have broad heads, elbowed anten- 

 nae (Fig. 2, d) which are usually thirteen-jointed in the males, 

 and only twelve-jointed in the females. The jaws or mandi- 

 bles (Fig. 21) are very strong, and often toothed ; the tongue 

 or ligula (Pig. 20, a), as also the second jaws or maxillae 

 (Fig. 20, c), one each side the tongue, are long, though in 

 some cas^s much shorter than in others, and frequently the 

 tongue when not in use is folded back, once or more, under 

 the head. All the insects of this family have a stiff spine 

 on all four of the anterior legs, at the end of the tibia, or the 

 third joint from the body, called the tibial spur, and all, ex- 

 cept the genus Apis, which includes the honey-bee, in which 

 the posterior legs have no tibial spurs, have two tibial spurs 

 on the posterior legs. All of this family except one parasitic 

 genus, have the first joint or^arsus of the posterior foot, 

 much widened, and this together with the broad tibia 

 (Fig. 2, h) is hollowed out (Fig. 22, p), forming quite a basin 

 or basket on the outer side, in nearly all the species ; and gen- 

 erally, thi? basket is made deeper by a rim of stiff hairs. 

 These receptacles or pollen baskets are only found of course 

 on such individuals of each community as gather pollen. A 

 few of the ApidjB — thieves by nature — cuckoo-like, steal un- 

 bidden into the nests of others, usually bumble-bees, and 

 here lay their eggs. As their young are fed and fostered by 

 another, they gather no pollen, and hence like drone bees 

 need not, and have not pollen baskets. The young of these 

 lazy tramps, starve out the real insect babies of these homes, 

 by eating their food, and in some cases, it is said, being una- 

 ble like the young cuckoos to hurl these rightful children 

 from the nest, they show an equal if not greater depravity by 

 eating them, not waiting for starvation to get them out of the 

 way. These parasites illustrate mimicry, already described, 

 as they look so like the foster mothers of their own young, 

 that unscientific eyes would often fail to distinguish them. 



