68 Structure of Queen Bee. 



chief structural peculiarity -wliicli marks the queen, as thccc 

 are the characteristic marks of females among all animals. 

 But she has other peculiarities worthy of mention: She is 

 longer than either drones or workers, being more than seven- 

 eighths of a-n inch in length, and, with her long tapering 

 abdomen, is not without real grace and beauty. The queen's 

 moutk organs are developed to a less degree than are those of 

 the worker bees. Her jaws (Fig. 24, h) or mandibles are 

 weaker, with a rudimentary tootli, and her tongue or ligula 

 (Fig, 17, a), as also the labial palpi (Fig. 17, b) and maxillre, 

 are considerably shorter. Her eyes, like the same in the 

 worker-bee (Fig. 5), are smaller than those of the drones, and 

 ilo not meet above. So the three ocelli are situated above and 

 lietween the compound eyes. The queen's wings (Fig. 16) are 

 relatively shorter than those of either the workers or droncfi, 

 for instead of attaining to the end of the body, they reach but 

 little beyond the third joint of the abdomen. Tlie queen, 

 though she has the characteristic posterior tibia and bacal 

 tarsus (Fig. 18, jj), in respect to breadth, has not the cavity 

 and surrounding hairs which form the pollen baskets of the 

 workers. The queen possesses a sting which is longer than 

 that of the workers, and resembles that of the bumble-bees in 

 being curved, and that of bumble-bees and wasps in having 

 few and short barbs — the little projections which point back 

 like the barb of a fish-hook, and which, in case of the workers, 

 prevent the withdrawing of the instrument, when once fairly 

 inserted. While there are seven quite prominent barbs on 

 each shaft of the worker's sting, there are only three on those 

 of the queen, and these are very short, and, as in a worker's 

 sting, are successively shorter as we recede from the point of 

 the weapon. Aristotle says that the queen will seldom use her 

 sting, which I have found true. I have often tried to provoke 

 a queen's anger, but never with any evidence of success. 

 Neighbour (page 14, note) gives three cases where queens used 

 their stings, in one of whicli cases she was disabled from farther 

 egg-laying. She stings with slight eflect. 



The queen, like the neuters, is developed from an impreg- 

 nated egg, which, of course, could only come from a queen 

 that had previously mated. These eggs are not placed in a 

 liorizontal cell, but in one specially prepared for their recep- 

 tion (Fig. 15, i). The queen cells are usually built on the 



