third edition 
The Pennsylvania State College 
Correspondence Courses in Nature Study 
insect Slife 
LESSON NO. 2 
The Honey-Bee 
By George C. Butz 
O F course, the bee is an insect. It may be regarded also 
as a domesticated animal. It is an excellent typical 
specimen of an insect, for it has two pafrs of wings well 
adapted for flight, three pairs of legs developed for special 
service, and its body is in three well marked divisions — the 
head, the thorax (the chest), and the abdomen. All the legs 
and wings are attached to the thorax. (See Fig. 2.) 
A remarkable thing about bees is the great amount of in¬ 
telligence they display in their work, and we will regard them 
in this lesson not only as dumb animals but also as intelligent 
beings, because it has been the pleasure of many naturalists 
to observe the actions of bees and interpret them in the lan¬ 
guage of human thought. 
Little do we realize, when we see a bee visiting a flower, 
that men have become gray and great in devoting their lives 
to the study of these marvelous little creatures. Many years 
ago strange stories were told about bees. You will find 
several interesting references to bees in the Bible, and it 
may be well to read them in this connection. The early 
naturalists and philosophers who wrote about bees have mixed 
much truth and error concerning their life history. Pliny 
who wrote nearly two thousand years ago, was not far wrong 
when he said that bees occupy the first rank among insects 
and that they were created for man, for whom their work 
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