THE HONEY-BEE. 179 



with doubtful specific characters, with which we cannot deal 

 here, enough having been said in relation to the species of 

 Apidce. 



All the members of the genus dealt with above live in per- 

 manent colonies. There are three individual forms — the perfect 

 female or queen, the imperfect female or worker (wrongly called 

 a neuter), and the male or drone. The queen's sole function is 

 to lay eggs; her ovaries^ are very large, and nearly fill the 

 abdomen. The female is longer than either drone or worker ; 

 her mouth organs are not so fully formed as in the worker : the 

 tongue, labial palps, and maxillse are much shorter, and the 

 curious pollen-baskets on the hind-legs are absent. The queen 

 sting is curved like that of a Humble bee, and has fewer barbs 

 than that of the worker.' The drones or male bees are found in 

 the summer. The presence or absence of drones depends on 

 the condition of the colony. The drone of A. mellifiea is much 

 shorter than the queen, and more robust. When flying, the 

 drone produces a loud buzzing noise. The eyes meet above 

 (holoptic), whereas in the queen and worker they are separate. 

 No sting is developed, nor pollen-basket. Drones hatch from 

 unfecundated eggs, but queens and workers from fecundated 

 ones. Workers often lay eggs, which invariably turn to 

 drones (parthenogenesis). The workers are abortive females, 

 and vary from 15,000 to 45,000 in each colony; whilst A. 

 indica, as mentioned before, may number 80,000 in one colony, 

 when fully stocked. The maxillse (fig. 87, mx) and labium are 

 much elongated, the latter deeply grooved and joined to the 

 head by two rods {aardinales), ca. The sides of the maxillse 

 (laoinife) (Jac) are stiff, and form a tube connected with the 

 oral orifice ; the labium is long, and united to the maxillae by 

 the submentum and two rods. From the mentum proceeds the 

 lingua or tongue (li), labial palps (l,p), and paraglossfe. The 

 tongue is hairy, and consists of a ringed sheath, slit beneath. 

 Within the tongue is a rod which extends beyond its tip, also 

 cleft ventrally. When not in use, these mouth-parts are bent 



