INTBOD0CTOBY KEMAEKS. 10 



WOBItEBS. 



All labor devolves on the Workers. These are provided 

 with a sac or bag for gathering honey, and basket-like 

 cavities on their posterior legs in which to pack the pollen 

 of the flowers in little pellets for carrying 

 it home to the hive. They range the fields 

 for honey and pollen, secrete wax, construct 

 combs, prepare food to nurse the young, 

 bring water, obtain propolis to seal up all 

 Kig 3. WORKER, crevices and flaws about the hive, stand guard 

 to keep out intruders, etc. 



Huber and some others divide the workers into classes, 

 such as wax-workers, pollen-gatherers, nurses, etc., but it 

 is very difiicult to believe that any such distinctions exist. 

 For the defence of their treasures and themselves, they 

 are provided with a sting and a virulent poison, but will not 

 use it when abroad, if unmolested ; they volunteer an at- 

 tack only when near the hive. They are all females with 

 undeveloped organs of generation, yet they possess enough 

 of the maternal instinct to make them good nurses for the 

 brood of the real mother. For nearly two weeks after the 

 young worker emerges from its cell, it is almost exclusive- 

 ly engaged within the hive ; thereafter, it assists in collect- 

 iuff stores. 



AGE OP THE WOBKER. 



Its age varies from one to eight months, according to 

 the season in which it is hatched. In the busiest season it 

 lives but a few weeks, but when hatched at the beginning 

 of cool weather, its life is extended several months. 



The Drones are the males; their bodies are large and 

 clumsy, and without the symmetry of the queen and worker. 

 Their buzzing when on-ihe wing is loud, and diflerent from 



