304 
COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
the Honey-bees (Apis), Humble-bees (Bombus), Wasps 
(Vespa), Ants (Formica), Ichneumon-flies, and Gall-flies. 
Those living in societies exhibit three castes : females, or 
“ queens J” males, or “ drones ;” and neuters, or sexless 
“ workers.” There is but one queen in a hive, and she 
is treated with the greatest distinction, even when dead. 
She dwells in a large, pear-shaped cell, opening down¬ 
ward. She lays three kinds of eggs: from the first 
come forth workers, the second produces males, and the 
last females. The drones, of which there are about eight 
hundred in an ordinary hive, are marked by their great 
size, their large eyes meeting on the top of the head, and 
a b c 
Fig. 277.—Honey-bee (Apis mellifica ): a, female ; 6, worker; c, male. 
by being stingless. The workers, which number twenty 
to one drone, are small and active, and provided with 
stings, and hollow pits in the thighs, called “ baskets,” 
in which they carry pollen. Their honey is nectar elabo¬ 
rated in the crop by an unknown process; while the wax 
is secreted from the sides of the abdomen and mixed with 
saliva. There is a subdivision of extra labor: thus there 
are wax-workers, masons, and nurses. Ants (except the 
Saiiba) have but two classes of workers. While Ants live 
in hollow trees or subterranean chambers (called formi- 
carium), Honey-bees and Wasps construct hexagonal cells. 
The comb of the Bee is hung vertically, that of the Wasp 
is horizontal. 
