138 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
to change her skin for the last time. In the case 
of the worker these fine-wrought sleeping-clothes 
envelop her whole body, forming a continuous 
cocoon, But the queen-larva weaves herself only 
a scanty sort of cloak, covering her head and 
thorax, but leaving her nether portions bare. The 
theory usually advanced in explanation of this is, 
that when the surplus queens are slaughtered in 
their cells by the accepted mother-bee after her 
fertilisation, the fell work is rendered easier by 
the absence of the tough material of the cocoon 
over the parts generally attacked. It seems to 
be well substantiated that in a battle of queens 
the stings are not used haphazard, as with the 
workers, but each queen tries to thrust her weapon 
into one of her enemy’s spiracles or breathing- 
holes, of which she possesses fourteen, seven on 
each side. And a stroke dealt in this way appears 
to be always fatal. 
But, in all likelihood, the true reason why the 
queen sleeps in a short gown made of tough, coarse 
fibre must be looked for somewhere back in the 
old ancestral history of the honey-bee. It is 
probably safe to consider the complete worker 
cocoon as a comparatively recent introduction, — 
evolved to meet some necessity arising since the 
bee-people became a civilised race. But what its 
true origin was appears to be out of the reach of 
all conjecture. A curious fact is that these cocoons 
are never removed from the cell. They remain 
