146 



ARTHROPODS : INSECTS. 



there are no eggs or larvae in the cells from which a new 

 queen maj' be hatched, they become discouraged, cease 

 to labor, and the whole colony soon dies. If there are 

 esies or larva; in the cells, the bees select one, — the 

 lar\-a of a worker, — and destroying the cells adjoining, 

 so as to make a royal cell, they supply the grub with 

 the sort of food prepared for queens, and in this way 

 soon raise another queen. 



The Humble Bees are larger than the Hive Bees, 

 and have very hairy bodies. There are more than 

 forty kinds in North America. They build nests in 

 the ground, or under stones, or in deserted mouse nests, 

 and their cells are larger and egg-shaped. Sometimes 

 there are four hundred bees in a community, the de- 

 scendants of one female bee which survived the win- 

 ter and founded the colony in the spring. The Car- 

 penter Bees are large. They cut tubular holes in posts 

 and stumps, and lay their eggs there in layers of pol- 

 len. The Mason Bees make their nests of sand, in 

 crevices. 



Wasps. 



Wasps usually live in colonies composed of males, 

 females, and workers. Unlike Bees, they prey upon 



Fig. 257. — Wasp. 



