3o8 



FIRST LESSONS IN ZOOLOGY 



gnaw the caps awa}' and come out into the liive read}' to 

 work. 



Such is the Hfe-history of the worker bee. It has been 

 demonstrated that tlie eggs which produce workers and 

 those which produce queens do not differ, but that if the 

 workers desire to have a queen they tear down two or 

 three cells around some one cell, enlarging it into a vase- 

 shaped cavity (fig. 244). The larva that hatches in this 

 large cell is fed for its whole larval life with rich bee-jelly. 

 From its pupa issues not a worker but a new queen. The 



Wf •#■, 



»^^^^^> 



Fig. 244. — W rker bn od iiid queen cells of hone) -bee, beginning at the 

 rit^lit end oi u[ pi r row ai llIIs md ^oin^ to tlie lett is a series of egg. 

 yennig larvre, old l,irv:e, pupa, and aduU reach' to issue; the large 

 eurving cells below are e|ueeli-cells. (From lienton.) 



eggs \\'hich produce drones or males differ from those 

 which produce queens and workers in being unfertilized, 

 the queen having the power to lay either fertilized or 

 unfertilized eggs. When a new queen appears, or when 

 several appear at once, there is great excitement in the 

 community. If there arc several they are believed to 

 fight among themselves initil only one survives. It is 

 said that a eiucen never uses its sting except against 

 another queen. The old queen now leaves the hive ac- 

 companied by many of the workers. She and her fnl. 



