414 



AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



alike, and it need only be said that all are useful and none are 

 in any true sense of the word injurious. 



The social bees are among the most interesting of all the 

 insects, yielding only to the ants in the perfection of their colo- 

 nial organization. The domesticated honey-bee. Apis mellijica, 

 may be accepted as the type of the highest development in this 

 family. Here we have in each hive a queen, or fully developed 

 female, who is often, under normal conditions, the mother of 

 every individual contained in it. She does not labor, is carefully 

 tended by workers who provide for all her wants, and her only 

 function is to supply a sufhcient quantity of eggs for the brood- 

 cells. The comb made by the hive-bee is so universally known 

 that no time need be wasted in describing it ; nor is it important 

 to say just how the wax is produced, save to state that it is 

 excreted by special glands on the under side of the abdomen of 

 the workers in plate-like masses. These are gathered together, 

 kneaded by the jaws, and placed in position on the comb. These 

 waxen cells are used either as cradles for the young or for storing 

 the honey against such time as no food can be obtained ; for, 

 unlike the bees previously spoken of, the whole colony lives 

 through the winter, and requires a certain amount of food to 

 maintain it until work can be resumed the spring following. Of 

 these storing habits man has made use ; but there are a number 

 of wild species belonging to other genera than Apis that have 

 similar tendencies. The life in a hive proceeds something as 

 follows : the workers, who are the real rulers, determine about 

 how many young should be raised during the season, and build / 

 the proper number of brood-cells, making three distinct sizes. 

 The smaller are intended for workers, which here, as elsewhere 

 in the Hymenoptera, are simply undeveloped females ; the 

 larger are to contain males or drones ; while a very few, irregular, 

 somewhat flask-shaped cells are plastered at the sides of the 

 combs, and are intended for new queens or perfect females. The 

 queen lays an egg in each of the brood-cells, and never makes a 

 mistake in its character. She lays drone eggs in the drone cells, 

 and drones only are produced from them. In the worker cells 

 workers only are matured, while in the queen cells fully developed 

 females are raised. It is interesting to note that the insects have 

 the matter of sex under perfect control, and it is believed that 



