26 THE HONEY-BEE. 
the barbs or small points with which they are fur- 
nished. The portions at each side are muscles, etc., 
which remain attached when the sting is drawn from the 
bee, as happens when the darts are thrust into the flesh 
and cannot be withdrawn on account of the barbs; the 
bee is compelled to leave it behind, and loses its life. 
The workers are all females with undeveloped organs 
of generation, yet they possess 
enough of the maternal instinct 
to make them good nurses for 
the brood of the real mother. 
For several days after the 
young worker emerges from its 
cell, it is almost exclusively 
engaged within the hive, there- 
after it assists in collecting 
stores. 
The life of the worker varies 
from one to eight months, ac- 
cording to the time at which 
it is hatched. In the busiest 
season it lives but a few weeks, 
but when hatched at the be- 
ginning of cool weather, its life is extended through 
several months. 
Fig. 4.—THE sTING OF 
WORKER. 4, DART. 
DRONES. 
The Drones (fig. 5), are the male3; their bodies are 
large and clumsy, and without the symmetry of the queen 
and worker. Their buzzing when on the wing, is loud, 
and different from that of the workers. They have no 
sting, and may be taken in the fingers with impunity. 
They seem to be the least valuable class in the bee-com- 
munity. They assist, sometimes, in keeping up the 
necessary animal heat in the hive; but one only, out of 
