BEE MANUAL. 45 
they differ only in size, colour, and perhaps in the greater or 
less development of some organs; but none of them present 
any marked distinction in structure or in habits ; they therefore 
admit of cross-breeding, producing fertile crosses or hybrids 
which may be continued as a new variety, or re-crossed with 
other varieties. This would not be the case if they belonged 
to different species. They belong further to the genus Apis, 
the family Apide, the order Hymenoptera, sub-class Hexapoda, 
and class Insecta. 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STRUCTURE. 
As characteristic of their class and sub-class, the body of 
these insects is divided into three parts—the head, the thorax, 
and the abdomen, which are connected by small and hollow 
ligaments; they have six legs, attached to the thorax, and 
they breathe air through a system of tubes to be described 
further on. As belonging to the order Hymenoptera, they have 
four membranous wings attached to the thorax, of which 
the two foremost cover the hinder ones when at rest; also a 
proboscis or tongue by which they can suck or lap, and strong 
jaws for biting. The family Apide, according to Professor 
Cook, 
“‘Includes not only the hive-bee but all insects which feed their 
helpless young or larve entirely on pollen, or honey and pollen. 
The larve of all insects of this family are maggot-like—wrinkled, foot- 
less, tapering at both ends. . . . They are helpless, and thus, 
all during their babyhood—the larve state—the time when all insects 
are most ravenous, and the only time when many insects take food, 
the time when all growth in size, except such enlargement as is 
required by egg-development occurs, these infant bees have to be fed 
by their mothers or elder sisters. They have a mouth with soft lips 
and weak jaws, yet it is doubtful if all or much of their food is taken 
in at that opening. There is some reason to believe that they, like 
many maggots, such as the Hessian fly larve, absorb much of their 
food through the body walls. From the mouth leads the intestine, 
which has no anal opening, so there are no excreta other than gas and 
vapour. What commendation for their food, a/Z capable of nourish- 
ment, and thus all assimilated ! ” 
The genus Apis, to which the species 4. mellifica belongs, is 
characterised chiefly by slight peculiarities in the legs and 
wings. All bees of this genus have no tibial spurs (stiff spines 
