68 ARTHROPODS 



for the ducts leading from the glands to the sac. With a 

 needle attempt to pry apart the sides of the sting. 



Draw sting and glands (X4)- 



Draw ventral side of the abdomen showing where the 

 sting left it. 



The sting of a working bee is an ovipositor similar to 

 that of a grasshopper, specialized. The worker is therefore 

 a female insect so modified that it has no sex, but is called a 

 neuter. Of what use is this specialization to the animal? 



Development. — (i) The cells of the honeycomb are 

 prepared by the neuter, or working bees, but the eggs are 

 all laid by the queen, a large female bee which has an ovi- 

 positor. The eggs are placed in the bottom of the cell and 

 are soon hatched into maggots which are fed continually 

 by the workers. 



(2) Like the larva of all insects, they eat voraciously 

 and grow by molting until they are ready to pass into the 

 pupa state. By this time the larva fills the cell nearly to 

 the top and it spins a vestige of a cocoon just above its 

 head. The working bees build a top across the cell and 

 the pupa awaits its final change. 



(3) After a time varying in length according to the 

 weather, the change from a footless larva to a highly or- 

 ganized imago is completed and the animal bursts through 

 both coverings and is a full grown bee. Is this complete 

 or incomplete metamorphosis? What does the spinning of 

 the thin web by the insect indicate? 



Bees and similar insects belong to the order Hymenop- 

 tera. Is the name appropriate? 



Habits. — (i) Did you ever see a bee on a flower ? The 

 bumblebee on a clover blossom is a good one to watch. 



