22 THE ECONOMY OF THE HIVE 



hatch. As these come to maturity, they take 

 their turn at building and foraging, until by the 

 height of summer there are one or two hundred 

 members of the colony. But the thing ends 

 there. The sexes pair off, the males and 

 workers (for there are workers among the bumble- 

 bees) die, and each of the females hides away 

 under moss in a state of torpor all the winter, 

 becoming in her turn the foundress of a new 

 colony. 



The high state of specialisation found in the 

 hive-bee is no doubt a complex mingling of cause 

 and effect, and it would be very hard to say which 

 is which. It would be impossible for a queen 

 bee to found a colony, for she has not the means 

 with which to build a single cell, to carry pollen, 

 or even to procure the necessary food from the 

 flowers with which to maintain herself. On the 

 other hand, the workers have lost the power of 

 reproduction, and are unable to propagate their 

 kind. 



The curious problem, and one which is not to 

 be explained by any law that we are cognisant of, 

 is that the workers, with all their wonderful cell- 

 building, pollen-gathering, and honey-storing 

 appliances and instincts, descend from parents 

 who have never done anything of the kind, 

 having neither the organs nor the requisite 

 amount of intelligence. How is this complex 

 instinct transmitted ? It might be possible to 



