The Life of the Bee 
closed when nights are cold, and when these 
are warm a kind of curtain will admit the 
air. 
But the republic is less strong, general 
life less assured, prosperity more limited, 
than with our bees; and wherever these are 
introduced, the Meliponite tend to disappear 
before them. In both races the fraternal 
idea has undergone equal and magnificent 
development, save in one point alone, wherein 
it achieves no further advance among the 
Meliponite than among the limited offspring 
of the humble-bees. In the mechanical 
organisation of distributed labour, in the 
precise economy of effort—briefly, in the 
architecture of the city, they display mani- 
fest inferiority. As to this, I need only 
refer to what I have said in section 42 of 
this book, while adding that, whereas in the 
hives of our Apite all the cells are equally 
available for the rearing of the brood and 
the storage of provisions, and endure as 
long as the city itself, they serve only one 
of these purposes among the Meliponite,; 
and the cells employed as cradles for the 
nymphs are destroyed after these have been 
328 
