340 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



certain point as regards her reproductive system. A 

 notable fact is the short life of the individual workers, 

 who only last two or three months in the arduous summer ; 

 their brain-cells show signs of chronic fatigue and pass 

 eventually beyond the hmits of recuperation. This is the 

 seamy side of the bee's much-praised industry. With 

 all its getting, it gets not wisdom, but foolishness. 



Three events are ahke remarkable — ^the nuptial flight, 

 the swarming, and the death of the drones. In the nuptial 

 flight, a young queen, arrived at her maturity, passes from 

 the hive followed by a number of drones. One of these 

 is successful in overtaking her and in fertilizing her. In 

 many cases he wiU be the most vigorous and efiective, 

 which will be the better for the race, for while he and all 

 the others perish, he is the father of another generation, 

 while they have lived and died without having done any- 

 thing but feed and fly. The store of sperms received by 

 the fertilized queen-bee may last for a year or two, and it 

 depends on the way in which she lays her eggs whether 

 they are fertihzed or not. 



The swarming illustrates an interesting solution of the 

 population question. When the numbers in the hive have 

 greatly increased, the old queen goes oS with the super- 

 abundance of the population, and founds a new community. 

 It occasionally happens that this settles down in an im- 

 possible place and comes to naught, but Bonnier describes 

 a successful nesting in a tree — a very interesting case, since 

 the making of the combs had to be greatly modified to suit 

 the new conditions. 



The mortaUty of the drones is partly due to the shortage 

 of supplies towards the end of summer, for they depend on 

 what the workers give them, and the stores are, of course, 



