2 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



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 5) — 

 1st, One bee of peculiar shape, commonly called the Queen, 



or mother-bee. She is the imly perfect female in the hive, 

 and all the eggs are laid by her; 



2iid, Many thousands of worker-hces, or incomplete females, 

 whose office 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 cei-tana 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. 



5. In bees, as in all insects, the frame-work or skeleton 

 that supports the body is not internal, as in mammals, but 

 mostly external. It is formed of a horny substance, scientific- 

 ally called chitine, and well described in the following quota- 

 tion : 



6. "Cliitine is capabfe of being mouldcil into almost every 

 conceivable shape and appearand'. 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- 

 wing in mid air, the transparent cornea covering tlir eyes of all 

 insects, the almost impalpable films cast by the moulting larva\ 

 and the black and yellow rings of our native and imported bees, 

 besides internal braces, tendons, membranes, and duets innu- 

 merable. The external skeleton, hard for the most part, and 

 varied in thickness in beautiful adaptation to the strain to 



, which it may be exposed, gives persistency of form to the little 

 wearer; but it needs, wherever movement is necessary, to have 



