THE HONEY-BEE. 163 



they are not required. Their sole function is to impregnate the 

 queen, which act entails their death, the copulatory organs being 

 left in her vulva. 



Swarming takes place when a hive or colony becomes over- 

 stocked or disturbed by mice and other causes. This swarming 

 is most erratic. The bees cling together upon some tree or fence, 

 and then, accompanied by the queen, fly off to their new home, 

 apparently previously sought out, for they are said to fly direct 

 to their new abode, and there soon commence a fresh colony. 

 The three substances formed by bees are honey, wax, and 

 propolis. The first is made from the nectar of flowers. The 

 nectar is taken into the crop or honey-stomach and altered 

 into honey, which the bee regurgitates into the already 

 formed honey-cell, this cell being eventually capped. Honey 

 is stored for the use of the mature bees, and, when mixed with 

 pollen, to form food for the brood. Wax is formed as a 

 secretion in scale-like plates beneath the bee's abdomen in 

 four pairs of so-called "wax-sacs," and is seemingly formed 

 from nitrogenous food. When ripe, the wax-scales are re- 

 moved by the bee's claws, and taken by the mouth and mixed 

 with saliva to form a plastic substance from which the cells 

 are moulded. Propolis is the product of resinous substances 

 off buds of trees, &c., collected by the bees to use as cement, 

 and to fill in crevices between the irregular cells in the comb, 

 and for the attachment of the latter. 



The other group of this division, the Fossores, are the Digging- 

 v/asps. Oerceris arenaria and Pompilius plumheus are two com- 

 mon types. The former is black and yellow, the latter red and 

 black. They are lively solitary insects which himt for their 

 prey. The females often dig a hole lq the ground in which to 

 lay an egg ; in this is also placed a grub, to serve as food for the 

 newly hatched larva. The buried grub is not dead, but paralysed 

 by the sting of the Sand-wasp {Pompilius). All being in- 

 sectivorous, we may look upon them as beneficial to us. 



