HYMENOPTERA 363 



spoiling. By the time this store is consumed spring has arrived once 

 more, and invites our little insect to its richly-laden banquet. Thus the 

 structures built by the bees are not merely nurseries — as we have seen 

 above — but also serve as store-rooms or larders for a time of need. (When 

 are the bees obliged to encroach on their reserve store even in the 

 summer? Why may the bee-keeper only abstract a portion of the 

 honey stored up by the bees ? When is it even necessary to feed the 

 bees ?) 



On reviewing the mode of life and actions of bees, as described above, 

 we are driven to conclude that a careful division of labour among its 

 individual members prevails in the hive, no member of the community 

 existing for itself alone, but always for the community. The hive, in 

 fact, represents a well-ordered society or community, which (like the 

 largest communities of men) we may describe as a State, the members 

 of which represent a people or nation. 



C. Structural Arrangements by which the Bee is adapted for its Various 



Activities. 



In order to consider this subject, we will follow a bee on its excursion 

 to the source of its food-supply, and in so doing will note all other facts 

 still requiring explanation. 



1. How the Bee finds its Food. — Numerous experiments have shown 

 that, in spite of its two large compound eyes and the three small simple 

 eyes, the bee cannot see distinctly, or distinguish colour for a greater 

 distance than from 3 to about 6^ feet. Hence, it must be guided from 

 a distance to the sources of food by the smell, which probably has its 

 seat in the short, elbowed antennce. By the smell, too, the many thou- 

 sands of bees in a community recognise each other, for, as naturalists - 

 have proved by laborious researches, each bee society has its own 

 peculiar "hive-scent." In the- dark hive the bee is probably also guided 

 by the sense of touch, of which the antennae are likewise the organs. 

 Bees are evidently also endowed with hearing, for we have seen that 

 they perceive the peculiar sounds uttered by the young queen bee before 

 swarming (see Section B, 2). 



2. How the Bee reaches the Source of its Food. — Honey and pollen 

 are the chief materials which the bee seeks out for its food. In 

 nature, however, these substances are only present in small quantities, 

 so that an animal compelled to crawl from flower to flower could not 

 possibly satisfy all its wants thereon. This is only in the power 

 of an animal provided with wings, like the bee. The latter, however, 

 besides satisfying its own individual needs, has further to convey food 



