CHAPTER VI 
THE LIFE PROCESSES OF THE INDIVIDUAL 
The discussion in previous chapters has had to do with 
the colony of bees and with the individual bees in their 
relation to the colony. To give a more complete account 
of the activities of the bees and to present a better con¬ 
ception of what manner of animal a bee is, it is necessary 
to discuss certain life processes of the adult individual. 
The entire form and structure of the body is so fundamentally 
different from that of man that it is difficult to form an ade¬ 
quate idea of the life activities. In this chapter mention of 
two important systems of organs is omitted, the nervous 
system with its sense organs and the reproductive organs, 
the structure and functions of these systems being so im¬ 
portant that a separate chapter is devoted to each one. 
To understand the life processes, it is obviously necessary 
to know the structure of the parts which function in the 
various activities. Fortunately the anatomy of the honey¬ 
bee has been carefully studied and described by Snodgrass. 1 
Previous to the appearance of this paper various books and 
papers on bee anatomy were published but unfortunately 
in many cases the descriptions were erroneous and the 
conclusions unjustified. 
In presenting the subject in the present case, it seems 
desirable not to discuss anatomy separately but rather to 
treat the bee as a living animal and to describe the functions 
of the various systems of organs, giving only the anatomical 
1 Snodgrass, R. E., 1910. The anatomy of the honey bee. Tech. Scr. 
18, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept, of Agric., 162 pp., 57 ill. 
132 
