Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 
i6 9 
Ths queen, the mother of all, in whatever way produced, is 
a true female, and different from both the labourers and the 
male. She is not so large in the trunk as the male, and ap- 
pears to be rather larger in every part than the labourers. 
The scales on the under surface of the belly of the labourers 
are not uniformly of the same colour, over the whole scale ; 
that part being lighter which is overlapped by the terminating- 
scale above, and the uncovered part being darker : this light 
part does not terminate in a straight line, but in two curves, 
making a peak ; all which gives the belly a lighter colour in 
the labouring bees : more especially when it is pulled out or 
elongated. 
The tongue of the female is considerably shorter than that 
of the labouring bee, more like that of the male : however, the 
tongues of the labourers are not in all of an equal length, but 
none have it so short as the queen. 
The size of the belly of the female of such animals varies a 
little, according to the condition they are in : but the belly of 
the male and the labourer has but little occasion to change its 
size, as they are at all times nearly in the same condition 
with regard to fat, having always plenty of provision : but the 
true female varies very considerably ; she is of a different size 
and shape in the summer to what she is in the winter ; and 
in the winter she has what may be called her natural size and 
shape : she is, upon the whole, rather thicker than the la- 
bourer ; and this thickness is also in the belly, which probably 
arises from the circumstance of the oviduct being in the winter 
pretty large, and the reservoir for semen full. The termina- 
tion of the belly is rather more peaked than in the labourers, 
the last scale being rather narrower from side to side, and com- 
mdccxcii. Z 
