The Colony and its Organization 
45 
large that they meet on top of the head, forcing the ocelli 
(simple eyes, 6, Fig. 69) down on the front nearer the bases 
of the antennae. The legs (Fig. 81) have no pollen baskets. 
The wax glands are missing, and there is no sting (this 
being a strictly female organ, a modified ovipositor). 
There is one more segment visible in the abdomen than 
in the female and the abdomen is larger and blunt at 
the end. A row of prominent hairs is present on the dorsal 
side of the abdomen. 
In the early spring when brood-rearing begins, the first 
eggs laid by the queen ordinarily develop into workers and, 
as the colony becomes more populous and the weather mod¬ 
erates, drones rapidly appear. They may be fairly abun¬ 
dant, if the beekeeper does not reduce their number, up to 
the close of the honey-flow, but at that time the workers 
drive them from the colony. The first indication of this 
exodus is to see them in numbers on the bottom board and 
soon workers will be seen leaving the entrance carrying the 
heavy drones, with the base of a wing grasped by the man¬ 
dibles. They are dropped a hundred feet or more from the 
hive and usually fail to return. If they do return the pro¬ 
cess is repeated. 1 There is reason to believe that the drones 
are first starved and then carried out when they become 
weak. They are rarely stung to death. This slaughter of 
the drones is best seen in localities where the honey-flow 
stops abruptly. In queenless colonies, drones are not re¬ 
moved and cases are reported of such colonies retaining 
them until well into winter. Drones usually do not fly until 
over a week old but they are probably functionally developed 
earlier, for the spermatozoa are developed in the pupa. 
The drones are seemingly not so fundamentally members 
of a single colony as are females. They may be placed in 
any colony without being molested and appear to enter 
anywhere without challenge until the time of the slaughter. 
1 It is not so usually recognized that old workers are sometimes treated 
in the same manner. 
