80 PHYSIOLOGT OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



Their proper office is to impregnate the young queens. 



" Their short proboscis sips 

 No luscious nectar from the wild thyme's lips, 

 From the lime's leaf no amber drops they steal, 

 Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal : 

 On other's toils in pamper'd leisure thrive 

 The lazy fathers of the industrious hive." 



Evans. 



186. The drones begin to make their appearance in 

 April or May ; earlier or later, according to the forwardness 

 of the season, and the strength of the colony. Like the other 

 inhabitants of the hive they cannot perform the work for 

 which they are intended, till at least one week old. They 

 go out of the hives only when the weather is warm, and at 

 mid-day. 



187. As we have seen (122), the mating of the queen 

 with a drone always takes place in the air. Physiologists 

 say that it cannot be otherwise, because the sexual organs 

 of the drone cannot be extruded unless his abdomen is 

 swelled by the filling of all the tracheae with air. This hap- 

 pens only in swift flight (74). 



Dzierzon supposes that the sound of the queen's wings, 

 when she is in the air, excites the drones. . Evidently their 

 eyes (11) and ears (25) which are highly developed, as 

 proven bj' Cheshire, help them also in the search of the 

 queen, which is their sole occupation, when in the field. In 

 the interior of the hive, they are never seen to notice her ; 

 so that she is not molested, even if thousands are members 

 of the same colony with herself. But outside of the hive, 

 they readily follow her, led, according to Dzierzon, by the 

 peculiar hum of her flight, and certainly also, by the senses 

 of smell and of sight, which are more perfect than those of 

 the worker, most likely for this single purpose. 



" Wlien the queen flies abroad, the fleetest drone is more likely 

 to succeed in his addresses than another, and thus he impresses 

 upon posterity some part of his own superior activity and en- 



