104 
Beekeeping 
organs undergo change, these arc not of a character to change 
the outside appearance. The food taken by the adult is 
not stored up within the body, as in the larva, but is taken 
for immediate use. 
THE CYCLE OF DUTIES OF THE ADULT WORKER BEE 
When the worker emerges from the cell, it is covered with 
a soft skin, the last pupal moult, which is quickly removed. 
For a day or two the young bee remains on the combs, fre¬ 
quently on the one from which it emerged, and moves about 
but little. Numbers of young bees are often seen in the 
upper part of the hive and especially in the supers. In a 
few days they begin the inside work 1 of the hive which 
‘An interesting opportunity for speculation is offered in attempting 
to determine the basis for the division of labor in worker bees according 
to age. In studying the structure of the compound eye, the author (Proc. 
Acad. Nat. Science, Philadelphia, Vol. LVII, pp. 123-157) was struck by 
the presence of enormous numbers of curved unbranched hairs which cover 
the eye of the young adult bee so completely that the facets are not visible. 
These hairs are broken off readily and in field bees most of the hairs have 
disappeared. It is probably impossible for the compound eyes to function 
while these hairs remain. These facts suggested the possibility that the 
young bees remain in the hive because they cannot see clearly enough to 
fly to the field and that when the hairs are lost the field work is begun. 
That the young bees are capable of flight is clearly shown by their ability 
to leave with a swarm. In this case, sight is probably not essential. In 
attempting to determine whether there is any ground for such a belief, 
numerous experiments were tried, by removing the hairs of young bees 
to see whether they were then more inclined to leave the hive. The hairs 
were scraped from some young workers and in other cases soft paraffin or 
beeswax and paraffin was applied to the eyes and then removed, the hairs 
breaking off with its removal. In every case the handling made the action 
of the bees abnormal, so that no conclusions of any value were obtained. 
That this is probably the correct interpretation of the function of these 
hairs still lingers in the mind of the author, in spite of inability to obtain 
proof through experiments. 
It may be said in favor of this theory that it offers a structural basis 
for an instinct which is otherwise unexplained. The attribution of an 
action to “instinct” is a lazy way of explaining phenomena. Merely to 
classify an action and group it with others, to which a class name is given, 
does not throw any light on the behavior. When an action is attributed 
to “instinct” the study of the behavior often suffers a loss rather than 
gain, for the giving of a name, to some minds, constitutes an explanation. 
There is reason for the belief that instincts all have a physical basis, some 
