CLASS INSECTA: OBDEK HTMBNOPTEKA. 307 



bees to stop up cracks in their hives, are in some mysterious 

 way elaborated out of materials obtained from plants. The 

 various classes of bees are hatched in 

 different-shaped cells, and fed with pecu- 

 liar food. The workers and drones have 

 horizontal cells, differing only in size ; 

 but queen-cells are larger, vertical, and 

 open downward. When the population 

 becomes too large, a portion emigrate 

 (swarm), accompanied by the old queen.* 

 The Humble-bees have two sorts of 

 females — large and small. The eggs of 

 the former produce males, females, and w^k^;t.m7^n.. 



* A swarm of bees is a carefully-organized community where the division of labor 

 is carried to the utmost limit. In a hive containing about twenty thousand bees 

 there would be one queen, five hundred drones, and nineteen thousand five hundred 

 workers. — The loss of the queen throws everything awry, and if her place is not 

 supplied the hive will perish. A grub is selected, its cell enlarged to royal dimen- 

 sions, and the stimulating food destined for the queen fed to it. In sixteen days its 

 transformation to a queen will be complete, and it will be ready to assume the royal 

 functions. As but one queen can reign in a hive, the young queens in the royal cells 

 are carefully guarded until it is settled whether there will he new swarms sent off. If 

 not, then the old queen comes in and stings the rest to death. If a swarm leaves 

 nnder her care, a young queen is released which at once tries to destroy her sisters, 

 but is prevented by the sentinels. If she also departs with a swarm, then a third 

 queen is set free. Finally the reigning queen puts to death her remaining rivals. 

 When a swarm is to start, great preparations are made ; scouts are sent out to select 

 a suitable place for the new settlement, and the workers gather food to carry with 

 them. At a signal the queen starts and the rest follow, lighting wherever she stops, 

 and returning if she goes back. — Within a hive all is hustle and hurry, yet all is order. 

 Every outlet is besieged. Hundreds of bees arrive laden with provisions and 

 material. Cautious sentinels scrutinize eveiy arrival. Pni*veyor8, anxious to be 

 away again, stop at the entrance and deliver their loads to other bees. Scavengers clear 

 the hive of everything which would impede the traffic, or injure the health of the 

 inmates. Workers drag out the bodies of their dead companions. Any rash intruder 

 is stung to death, and if he cannot be removed is at once embalmed ; if it be a 

 snail that can retire from their attacks within its shell, they cement it close, and its 

 house becomes its tomb.— In making their cells the bees suspend themselves so as to 

 form hanging festoons, which serve as bridges for the workers to pass. One of the 

 bees takes the flakes of wax adhering to the abdomen, moistens it, kneads it with 

 its mandibles, and sticks it to the roof. It then retires and another does the same. 

 Soon shapeless blocks of wax depend. A second set of workers hollow these out 

 and shape them into cells. Meanwhile new ones are being roughly laid, and so the 

 work goes on with marvellous rapidity, a swarm being able to construct four thousand 

 cells within twenty-four hours.— Article on Bees in Appleton's Cyclopaedia, Wood's 

 "Homes without Hands," Rendre's " 1' Intelligence des B@tes," and Reaumur's 

 " THistoire des Insectee." 



