The True Bees 



play no part in this proboscis-like structure, which is composed 

 entirely of lower lip and lower jaws, both greatly lengthened. 



The eggs of all bees are laid in cells of one kind or another in 

 which the larvae develop. Sometimes they are fed by the adult 



Fig. 2. — Head of A, queen; B, drone of honey bee (From Cheshire.) 



bees and sometimes a supply of food is stored in the cell so that 

 after the egg is laid and the cell is completely closed the mother 

 has no more responsibilty for the growth and development of her 

 offspring. 



It is among the higher and more specialized bees that we see 

 for the first time the extraordinary community life which is de- 

 veloped among them and certain other Hymenoptera, such as 

 certain social wasps and ants, and practically nowhere else, ex- 

 cept among the so-called white ants or Termites, which belong 

 to quite a different order. With the social bees we find a most 

 perfect communism ; each individual works for the good of the 

 community, and thus only indirectly for its own ends. 



In the evolution of this community life strange things have 

 happened. There has come to be a class of individuals which 

 are practically sexless, and are called neuters or workers. These 

 individuals do the mechanical work of the community. They 

 are really structurally females in which the development of the 

 sexual organs has ceased at a certain point. They are undevel- 

 oped and infertile females. The other two sexes are represented, 

 but the number of true females, or queens as they are called, is 

 small, only a sufficient number being found to supply eggs for 

 the perpetuation of the community. The males are aptly termed 

 drones, since they are drones in comparison with the active and 



5 



