70 HOW ARE ANIMALS AND PLANTS DEPENDENT? 



Bumblebees. In the life history of the bumblebee we see the 

 beginning of the instinct to live together. Some of the female 

 bees (known as queens) burrow into the ground in the fall and sleep 

 all winter. They lay their eggs the following spring in masses of 



pollen, which they 

 ^ : gather and place in 



holes in the ground, 

 often in a deserted 

 mouse hole. The 

 young hatch as larvae, 

 then pupate, and 

 finally become workers 

 (imperfect females) in 

 which the egg-laying 

 apparatus, or ovi- 

 positor, is modified to 

 be used as a sting. 

 The workers bring in 

 pollen to the queen, 

 in which she lays her 

 eggs. Several broods 

 of workers are raised 

 during a summer. In 

 the early fall a brood of males and egg-laying females or queens 

 are produced instead of workers. The males leave the hive as 

 soon as they are able to fly, and never return. They mate with 

 the queens and then die. They live in all about three or four 

 weeks. The young queens also leave the hive, although they 

 occasionally return. By means of these queens the brood is 

 started the following year. 



Practical Exercise 4. Report on the life story of some South American 

 wasps. Read Howe's Insect Behavior, Chapters ii and iv-xii inclusive. 



The Honeybee. The most wonderful communal life has been 

 developed among the honeybees. 1 



1 Their daily life may be easily watched in the schoolroom, by means of one of the 

 many good and cheap observation hives now made to be placed in a window frame. 

 Directions for making a small observation hive for school work can be found in 



«#" 



Compare the life history of the bumblebee with that of the 

 solitary wasp. How does it differ ? 



