INSECTS 



37 



28. Characteristics of worker bees. — While the workers 

 are smaller than either the queen or the drones, they are by 

 far the most mmierous, there being as many as 50,000 in a 

 good colony in midsunmier. In shape they resemble the 

 queen, as one would expect, since they are undeveloped 

 female bees. As was the case with the bumblebee, their 

 mouth parts are very complicated, consisting of a central 

 tongue and two other pairs of appendages, all of which form 

 a hollow tube for sucking up the 

 nectar of flowers (Fig. 25). Above 

 the tongue is a 

 pair of horny jaws 

 SL i'/' 'S. *^^^ move from 

 T| * ^ f \ side to side, which 

 the bees use main- 

 ly for comb build- 

 ing. On the tibia 

 of each hind leg 

 of a worker bee is 

 likewise a fringe of 

 stiff hairs, which, 

 together with the 

 concave outer sur- 

 face of the tibia, forms a pollen basket similar to that of 

 the bumblebee. In this the insect gathers a mass of pollen 

 which may easily be seen when the workers are returning to 

 the hive (Fig. 26). 



Fig. 25. — Mouth parts 

 of a bee. 



Fig. 26. — Hind leg of bee 

 with pollen, inner surface. 



29. Comb building. — All the work of comb manufacture is 

 carried on by the worker bees, and when one studies this process 

 carefully, it is found to be one of the greatest marvels of animal 

 activity. The cells of the comb are built out horizontally from each 

 side of a central partition in a brood frame or of a super box. To 



