2 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE NONEY-BEE. 
3. The habitation provided for bees is called a hive. 
The inside of a bee-hive shows a number of combs about 
half-an-inch apart and suspended from its upper side. 
These combs are formed of hexagonal cells of various sizes, 
in which the bees raise their young and deposit their stores. 
4. In a family, or colony of bees, are found (Plate II) — 
Ist, One bee of peculiar shape, commonly called the Queen, 
or mother-bee. She is the only perfect female in the hive, 
and all the eggs are laid by her; 
2d, Many thousands of worker-bees, or incomplete females, 
whose ollice is, while young, to take care of the brood and 
do the inside work of the hive; and when older, to go to 
the fields and gather honey, pollen, water, and propolis or 
bee-glue, for the needs of the colony; and 
3d, At certain seasons of the year, some hundreds and 
even thousands of large bees, called Drones, or male-bees, 
whose sole function is to fertilize the young queens, or virgin 
females. 
Before describing the differences that characterize each 
of these three kinds, we will study the organs which, to a 
greater or less extent, they possess in common, and which 
are most prominently found in the main type, the worker- 
bee. 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
! 
&. In bees, as in all insects, the frame-work or skeletos 
that supports the body is not internal, as in mammals, bu! 
mostly external. It is formed of a horny substance, scientis 
ically called chitine, and well described in the following 
quotation : 
6. ‘“Chitine is capable of being moulded into almost every 
conceivable shape and appearance. It forms the hard back of 
the repulsive cockroach, the beautiful scale-like feathers of the 
gaudy butterfly, the delicate membrane which supports the lace- 
