30 SOCIAL HABITATIONS. 
hive; that the workers are undeveloped females, which 
are properly called neuters ; and that the drones are males, 
which do no work, and have no stings. 
In the illustration, the Queen Bee is seen walking over 
the combs, and in this position she exhibits the peculiarities 
of form which distinguish her from her subjects, and which 
enable an experienced eye to detect her at once amid a 
crowd of workers. In the Queen Bee, the abdomen is 
long in proportion to its width, and the wings slightly 
cross each other when closed ; the latter being a very con- 
spicuous badge of sovereignty. The drones are easily 
distinguished by their generally larger size, their larger 
eyes, and the wide, blunt, and rounded abdomen. 
The lower part of the comb, in the foreground, is formed 
of cells which are closed at their mouth, and which do not 
show the hexagonal shape as well as those which are yet 
empty. Some of the empty cells are shown above, and the 
Queen Bee is represented as making her way towards them. 
There are three kinds of cell in a hive; namely, the 
worker-cell, the drone-cell, and the royal-cell. Of these, 
the two former are hexagonal, but can easily be distin- 
guished by the greater size of the drone-cell; while the 
royal-cell is totally unlike the nursery of a subject, whether 
drone or worker, and is almost always placed on the edge 
of a comb. One of these cells is shown in the illustration, 
and may be seen on the edge of the comb in the foreground. 
It is very much larger than an ordinary cell, and is built 
with a lavish expenditure of wax that affords a curious con- 
trast with the rigid economy observed in the structure of 
the other cells, The difference of size between the worker 
and drone-cells is shown in the central comb, where the 
worker-cells are seen below, and the drone-cells above. 
The little grub which is placed in the royal cell is not 
fed with the same food which is supplied to the other Bees, 
