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BOOK ABOUT THE BEE 



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THE GENEALOGY OF THE BEE 



The history of a nation or biography of an in- 

 dividual is incomplete without some information 

 about ancestry and contemporary relations, and 

 it often lends light to the subject immediately 

 dealt of to treat, even a little minutely, of sub- 

 jects closely akin to it. It will be as well, there- 

 fore, if I say something about the near relations 

 of the honey-bee. 



The great order Hymenoptera contains a most 

 varied assortment of insects, whose habits differ 

 to a remarkable extent from those of every other 

 order. In Great Britain alone there are some 

 three thousand distinct species, their common 

 character, widely though they differ in many 

 other points, being the possession of four mem- 

 branous wings, the lower ones provided with a 

 set of hooks, which, when the insect is in flight, 

 are affixed to a groove in the hind part of the 

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