BEES. Apiculture, or the care of bees, has a peculiar fascination for its votaries, and is espe cially adapted to the tastes of women and men who have a few hours leisure each day . It is a fact that some of the most successful bee-keepers in the country are women, the danger of being stung arnounting to almost nothing, If the bees are rightly handled. So, also, some of the most intelligent writers on bees are, and have been, women. Bee literature is by no means wanting. Besides the many foreign works of value, the field of bee literature is fully covered in the United States. The illustrations we give will show the different genders of the honey-bee per fectly; a being the drone or male bee ; b, the female or fertile bee; and c, the neuter or work ing bee. The , honey-bee belongs to the order Hexapods, or true insects; to the sub-order Hymenoptera, which' also includes the wasps, ants, ichneumon-flies, and saw-flies. The group embraces insects pgssessing a tongue, by which they may suck fluid food, and also strong jaws for biting and gnawing. The honey-bee belongs to the family Apidce, which includes all insects that feed their young or larvce, on pollen and honey. Of the natural history of the honey-bee, Prof. Cook, in his Manual of the Apiary, says: The insects of this family have broad heads, el bowed antennre which are usually thirteen-jointed in the males and only twelve-jointed in the fe males. The jaws or mandibles are very strong, and often toothed ; the tongue or ligula, as also. the second jaws or maxillie, one each side the tongue, are long, though in some cases much shorter than in others, and frequently the tongue when not in use is folded back, once or more, un der the head. All the insects of this family have a stiff spine on all four of the anterior legs, at the end of the tibia, or the third joint from the body, called the tibial spur, and all—except the genus Apis, which includes the honey-bee, in which the posterior legs have no tibial spurs—have two tibial spurs on the posterior legs. All of this family except one parasitic genus, have the first joint or tarsus of the posterior foot much widened, and this together with the broad tibia is hollowed out, forming quite a basin or basket on the outer side, in nearly all the species; and generally, this basket is made deeper by a rim of stiff hairs. These receptacles or pollen baskets are only found, of course, on such individuals of each cornmunity as gather pollen. A few of the Apidce—thieves by nature—cuckoo-like, steal unbidden into the nests of others, usually bninble-bees, and here lay their eggs. As their young are fed and fostered by another, they gather no pollen, and hence, like drone bees, need not, and have not pollen baskets. The young of these lazy tramps, starve out the real insect babies of these hotnes, by eating their food and in some cases, it is said, being unable, like the young cuckoos, to hurl these rightful children from the nest, they show an equal if not greater depravity by eating them, not waiting for starva tion to get them out of the way. These parasites illustrate mimicry, already described, as they look so like the foster raothers of their own young, that unscientific eyes would often fail to distin guish them. Probably bumble-bees are no sharper, or they would refuse ingress to these merciless vagrants. The larvce of all insects of this family are maggot-like—wrinkled, footless, tapering at both ends, and as before stated, feed upon pollen and honey. They are helpless, and thus, all dur ing their babyhood—the larvm state—the time when all insects are most ravenous, and the only tinie when many insects take food, the time when all growth in size, except such enlargement as is required by egg-development, occurs, these infant bees have to be fed by their mothers or elder sis ters. They have a mouth with soft lips and weak jaws, yet it is doubtful if all or much of their food is taken in at this opening. There is sorae rea son to believe that they, like many maggots—suck as the Hessian-fly larvm—absorb much of their food through the body walls. From the mouth leads the inte,stine, which has no anal opening. So there is no excreta other than gas and vapor. To this family belongs the genus of stingless bee,s (Melipona), of Mexico and South America, which store honey not only in the hexagonal brood-cells, but in great wax reservoirs. They, like the un kept hive-bee, build in hollow logs. They are ex ceedingly numerous in each colony, and it has thus been thought that there were more than one queen. They are also very prodigal of vvax, and thus may possess a prospective commercial im portance in these days of artificial comb-founda tion. In this genus the basal joint of the tarsus is triangular, and they have two submarginal cells, not three, to the front wings. They are also smaller than our common bees, and have wings that do not reach to the tip of their abdomens. Another genus of stingless becs, the genus Tri gona, have the wings longer than the abdomens, and their jaws toothed. These, unlike the itic/i pona, are not confined to the New World, but are met in Africa, India and Australasia. These build their combs in tall trees, fastening them to the branches much as does the Apis dorsata, not here mentioned. Of course insects of the genus Bombus—our common Bumble-bees—belong to this family. Here the tongue is very long, the bee large, the sting curved, with the barbs very short and few. Only the queens survive the win ter. In spring she forms her nest under some sod or board, hollowing out a basin in the earth, and after storing a mass of hee-bread—probably a mix ture of honey aud pollen—she deposits several eggs in the mass. The larym so soon as hatched out, eat out thimble-shaped spaces, which in time become even larger, and not unlike in form the queen-cells of our hive-bees When the bees is sue from these cells the same are strengthened by wax. Later in the season these coarse wax cells become verjr numerous. Some may be made as cells and not formed as above. The wax is dark, and doubtless contains nauch pollen, as do the cappings and queen-cells of the honey-bees. At first the bees are all workers, later queens ap pear, and still later, males. In Xylocopa, or the Carpenter-bees, which much resemble the Bumble bees, we have a fine example of a boring insect. With its strong mandibles or jaws it cuts long tunnels, often one or two feet long in the hardest wood. These burrows are divided by chip par titions into cells, and in each cell is left the bee bread and an egg. The Mason-bee—well named —constructs cells of earth and gravel, which by aid of their spittle they have power to cement, so that they are harder than brick. The Tailor or Leaf-cutting bees, of the genus Megachile, make wonderful cells from variously shaped pieces of leaves. These are always mathematical in form, usually circular and oblong, and are cut--by the insect's making scissors of its jaws—from various leaves, the rose being a favorite. I have found these cells made almost wholly of the petals or flower leaves of the rose. The cells are made by gluing these leaf-sections in concentric layers, let ting them over-lap. The oblong sections form the walls of the cylinder, while the circular pieces are crowded as we press circular wads into our shot-guns, and are used at the ends or for partitions where several cells are placed together. When complete, the single cells are in form and size much like a revolver cartridge. When several are placed together, which is usually the case, they are arranged end to end, and in size and form are quite like a small stick of candy, though not more than one-third as long. These cells I have found in the grass, partially buried in the earth, in crevices, and in one case knew of their being built in the folds of a partially-knit sock, which a good house-wife had chanced to leave station ary for some days. These leaf-cutters have rows of hair underneath, with which they carry pollen. I have noticed them each summer for some years swarming on the Virginia Creeper, often called Woodbine, while in blossom, in quest of pollen, though I never saw a single hive-bee on these vines. The Tailor-bees often cut the foliage of the same vines quite badly. The genus Osmia, are also called Mason-bees. Their glistening colors of blue and green possess a lustre and reflection unsurpassed even by the metals themselves. These rear their young in cells of mud, in mud-cells lining hollow weeds and shrubs, and in burrows which they dig in the hard earth. In early sum mer, during warm days, these glistening gems of life are frequently seen in walks and drives intent on gathering earth for mortar, or digging holes, and will hardly escape identification by the ob serving apiarist, as their form is so much like that of our honey-bees. They are smaller; yet their broad head, prominent eyes, and general form, is very like that of the equally quick and active, yet more soberly attired, workers of the apiary. Other bees—the numerous species of the genus Nomada and of Apathus,are the black sheep in the family Apidce. These tramps, already referred to, like the English Cuckoo and our American Cow blackbird, steal in upon the unwary, and, though all unbidden, lay their eggs; in this way appro priating food and lodgings for their own yet un born. Thus these insect vagabonds impose upon the unsuspecting foster-mothers in these violated homes, And these same foster-mothers show by their tender care of these merciless intruders, that they are miserably fooled, for they carefully guard and feed infant bees, vvhich with age will in turn practice this same nefarious trickery. In relation to the anatomy and physiology of the •honey-bee, Prof. Cook says: A very remarkable feature in the economy of the honey-bee, de scribed even by Aristotle, which is true of many other bees, and also of ants and many wasps, is the presence in each family of three distinct kinds, which differ in form, color, structure, size, habits and function Thus we have the queen, a, number of drones, and a far greater number of workers. Huber, Bevan, Munn and Kirby also speak of a fourth kind blacker than the usual workers. These are accidental, and are, as conclusively shown by Baron Von Berlepsch, ordinary workers, more deeply colored by loss of hair, dampness, or some other atmospheric con dition. American apiarists are too familiar with these black bees, for after our severe winters they prevail in the colony, and, as remarked by the Baron, they quickly disappear. Munn also tells of a fifth kind, with a top-knot, which ap pears at swarming seasons. I arn at a great loss to know what he refers to, unless it be the pollen mas-es of the Asclepias, or 'Milk-weed, which sometimes fasten to our bees and beconaes a severe burden. The queen, although referred to as the mother bee, was called the king by Virgil, Pliny, and by writers as late as the last centmy, though in the ancient Bee Master's Farewell, by John Hall, published in London in 1796, I find an admirable description of the queen bee, with her function correctly stated. IV aumur as quoted by Wildman on Bees, published in London in 1770, says : This third sort has a grave and sedate walk, is armed with a sting, and is mother of all the others. Huber, to whom every apiarist owes so much, and who, though blind, through the aid of his devoted wife and intelligent ser vant, Frances Bnrnens, developed so many inter esting facts, demonstrated the fact of the queens maternity. This author's work, second edition, published in Edinburgh in 1808, gives a full history of his wonderful observations and ex periments, and must ever rank with Langstroth as a classic, worthy of study by all. The queen, then, is the mother bee—in other words, a fully developed female. Her ovaries are very large, nearly filling her long abdomen. The tubes already described as composing them are very numerous, while the spermatheca is plainly visible. This is muscular, receives abundant nerves, and thus, without doubt, may or may not be compressed to force the sperm cells in contact with the eggs as they pass by the duct. Leuckart estimates that the spermatheca will hold more than 25,000 000 spermatozoa. The possession of the ovaries and attendant organs, is the chief structural peculiarity which marks the queen, as these are the characteristic marks of females among all animals. But she has other peculiarities worthy of mention: She is longer than either drones or workers, being more than seven-eighths of an inch in length, and, with her long tapering abdomen, is not without real grace and beauty. The queen's mouth organs, too, are developed to a less degree than are those of the worker-bees. Her jaws or man dibles are weaker, with a rudimentary tooth, and her tongue or ligula, as are also the labial palpi and maxill considerably shorter. Her eyes, like the same in the worker-bee, are smaller than those of the drones, and do not meet above. So the three ocelli are situated above and between. The queen's wings, too, are relatively shorter than those either of the workers or drones, for iustead of attaining to the end of the body, they reach but little beyond the third joint of the abdomen. The queen, though she has the characteristic posterior tibia and basal tarsus, in respect to breadth, has not the cavity and sur rounding hairs, which form the pollen baskets of the workers. The queen possesses a sting which is longer than that of the workers, and resembles that of the humble-bees in being curved, and that of bumble-bees and wasps, in having few and short barbs—the little projections which point hack like the barb of a fish-hook, and which, in case of the workers, prevent the withdrawing of the instrument, when once fairly inserted. While there are seven quite prominent barbs on each shaft of the worker's sting, there are only three on those of the queen, and these are very short, and, as in a worker's sting, they are succes sively shorter as we recede from the point of the weapon. Aristotle says that the queen seldom uses her sting, which I have fouDd true. I have ofte .1 tried to provoke a queen's anger, hut never with a ,y evidence of success. Neighbour gives three cases where queelts used their stings, in one of which cases she was disabled from further egg laying. She stings with slight effect. The queen, like the neuters, is developed from an impreg nated egg, which, of course, could only come from a queen that had previously mated. These eggs are mot placed in a horizontal cell, but in one specially prepared for their reception. These queen-cells are usually built on the edge of the comb, or around an opening in it, which is necessitated from their size and form, as usually the combs are too close together to permit their location elsewhere. These cells extend either vertically or diagonally downward, are composed of wax mixed with pollen, and in size and form much resemble a peanut. The eggs must be placed in these cells, either by the queen or workers. Some apiarists think that the queen never places an egg in a queen cell. but I have no doubt of the fact, though I never witnessed the act. I have frequently seen eggs in these cells, and, without exception, in the exact posi tion in which the queen always places her eggs in the other cells. John Hall, in the old work already referred to, whose descriptions, though penned so long ago, are wonderfully accurate, and indicate great care, candor and conscientious truthfulness, asserts that the queen is five times as long laying a royal egg as she is the others. From the character of his work, and its early publication, I can hut think that he had wit nessed this rare sight. Some candid apiarists of our own time and country—E. Gallup among the rest—claim to have witnessed the act. The eggs are so well glued, and are so delicate, that, with Neighbour, I doubt the possibility of a re moval. The opponents to this view place their belief on a supposed discord between the queen and neuters. This antagonism is inferred, and I have but little faith in the inference or the argument from it. I know that when royal cells are to be torn down, and inchoate queens destroyed, the workers aid the queen in this destruction. I have also seen queens pass by unguarded queen-cells, and yet respect them. I have also seen several young queens dwelling amicably together iu the same hive. Is it not probable that the bees are united in whatever is to he accomplished, and that when queens are to be destroyed all spring to the work, and when they are to live all regard them as sacred? It is true that the actions of bees are controlled and influenced by the surrounding conditions or cir cumstances, but I have yet to see satisfactory proof of the old theory that these conditions im press differently the queen and the workers. The conditions which lead to the building of queen cells and the peopling of the same are—loss of queen, when a worker larva from one to four days old will he surrounded by a cell; inability of a queen to lay impregnated eggs, her sperma theca having become emptied; great number of worker-bees in the hive; restricted quarters; the queen not having place to deposit eggs, or the workers little or no room to store honey; and lack of ventilation, so that the hive becomes too close. These last three conditions are most likely to occur at times of great honey secretion. A queen may be developed from an egg, or from a worker larva less than three days old. Mr. Doolittle has known queens to be reared from worker larv taken at four and a half days from hatching. In this latter case, the cells adjacent to the one containing the selected larva are re moved, and the larva selected by a royal cell.
The development of the queen larva is much like that of the worker, soon to be detailed, except that it is more rapid, and is fed richer and more plenteous food, called royal jelly. This peculiar food, as also its use and abundance in the cell, was first described by Schirach, a Saxon clergy man, who wrote a work on bees in 1771. Ac cording to Hunter, this royal pabulum is richer in nitrogen than that of the common larv. It is thick like rich cream; slightly yellow, and so abundant that the queen larva not only floats in it during all its period of growth, but quite a large amount remains after her queenship vacates the cell. We often find this royal jelly in incomplete queen-cells, without larvEe. The larval queen is longer and more rapid of development than the other larvEe. When devel oped from the egg—as in case of normal swarm ing—the larvEe feeds for five days, when the cells are capped by the workers. The infant queen then spins her cocoon, which occupies about one day. The end of the coeoon is left open. Some one has suggested that this is an act of thought ful generosity on the part of the queen larva, thus to render her own destruction more easy, should the welfare of the colony demand it, as now a sister queen may safely give the fatal sting. The queen now spends nearly three days in absolute repose. Such rest is common to all cocoon-spinning larvae. The spinning, which is done by a rapid motion to and fro of the head, always canying the delicate thread, much like the moving shuttle of the weaver, seems to bring exhaustion and need of repose. She now as sumes the nymph or pupa state. At the end of the sixteenth day she comes forth a queen. Hu ber states that when a queen emerges, the bees are thrown into a state of joyous excitement, so that he noted a rise in the temperature of the hive from 92° to 104° Fahrenheit. I have never tested this matter accurately, but nave failed to notice any marked demonstration on the natal day of her ladyship, the queen, or extra respect paid her as a virgin. When queens are started from worker larvm, they will issue as imago in ten or twelve days from the date of their new prospects. Mr. Doolittle has known them to issue in eight and one-half days. As the queen's development is probably due to superior quality and increased quantity of food, it would stand to reason that queens started from eggs are prefer able ; the more so, as under normal circumstan ces, I believe they are altnost always thus started. The best experience sustains this position. As the proper food and temperature could best be secured in a full colony—and here again the natural economy of the hive adds to our argu ment—we should infer that the best queens would be reared in strong colonies, or at least kept in such colonies till the cells are capped. Experience also confirms this view. As the quantity and quality of the food, and the general activity of the bees is directly conneeted with the full nourishment of the queen-larvm, and as these are only at the maximum in times of active gathering—the time when queen-rearing is natur ally started by the bees--we should also conclude that queens reared at such seasons are superior. Five or six days after issuing from the cell— Neighbour says the third day—if the day is pleasant, the queen goes forth on her " marriage flight ;" otherwise she will improve the first pleasant day thereafter for this purpose. Huber was the first one to prove that impregnation always takes place on the wing. Bonnet also proved that the same is true of ants, though in this case millions of queens and drones often swarm out at once. I have myself witnessed several of these wholesale matrimonial excur sions among ants. I have also frequently taken bumble-bees in copulo while on the wing. I have also noticed both ants and bumble-bees to fall while united, probably borne down by the expiring males. That butterflies, moths, dragon-flies, etc., mate on the wing is a matter of common observation. That it is possible to to impregnate queens when confined, I think very doubtful. The queens will caress the drones, but the latter seem not to heed their advances. That this ever has been done I also question, though many think they have positive proof that it has occurred. Yet, as there are so raany chances to be mistaken, and as experience and observation are so excessive against the possi bility, I think that these may be cases of hasty or inaccurate judgment. Many, very many. with myself, have followed Huber in clipping the queen's -wing, only to produce a sterile or drone laying queen. Prof. Leuckart believes that suc cessful mating demands that the large air-sacks of the drones shall be filled, which he thinks is only possible during flight. The demeanor of the drones leads me to think, that the excite ment of flight, like the warmth of the hand, is necessary to induce the sexual impulse. Parthe nogenesis, in the production of males, has also been found by Siebold to be true of other bees and wasps, and of some of the lower moths, in the production of both males and females. While the great Bonnet first discovered whift may be noticed on any summer day, all about us, even on the house-plants at our very windows, that parthenogenesis is best illustrated by the Apkides, or plant-lice. In the fall males and fe males appear, which mate, when the female lays eggs, which in the spring produce only females, these again produce only females, and thus on, for several generations, till with the cold of autumn come again the males and females. Bon net observed seven successive generations of pro ductive virgins. Duval noted nine generations in seven months, while Kyber observed produc• tion exclusively by parthenogenesis in a heated room for four years. So, we see, that this strange and almost incredible method of increase, is not rare in the insect world. About two days after she is impregnated, the queen, under normal circumstances, commences to lay, usually worker • eggs, and as the condition of the hive seldom impels to swarming the same summer, so that no drones are required, she usually lays no others the first season. The queen, when considered in relation to the other bees of the colony, possesses a surprising longevity. It is not surprising for her to attain the age of three years in the full possession of her powers, while they have been known to do good work for five years. Queens, often at the expiration of one, two, three or four years, depending on their vigor and excellence, either cease to be fertile, or else become impotent to lay impregnated eggs—the spermatheea hav ing become emptied of its sperm-cells. In such cases the workers usually supersede the queen; that is they destroy the old queen, ere all the worker eggs are gone, a ud take of the few remain ing ones to start queen-cells, and thus rear young, fertile and vigorous queens. The function of the queen is simply to lay eggs, and thus keep the colony populous; and this she does with an energy that is fairly startling. A good queen in her best estate will lay 2,000 or 8,000 eggs in a day. I have seen a queen in my observ ing hive, lay for some time at the rate of four eggs per minute, and have proved by actual com putation of brood-cells, that a queen may lay over 3,000 eggs in a day. Langstroth and Ber lepsch both saw queens lay at the rate of six eggs a minute. The latter had a queen that laid 3,021 in twenty-four hours, by actual count, and in twenty days laid 57,000. This queen continued prolific for five years, and must have laid, says the Baron, at a low estimate, more than 1,300,000 eggs. Dzierzon says queens may lay 1,000,000 eggs, and I think these authors have not exagger ated. The drones—the male bees—are usually found in the hive from May to November. Their presence or absence depends on the present and prospective condition of the colony, there being usually several hundred to each hive. It was discovered by Dzierzon in 1845, that the drones hatch from unimpregnated eggs. Drones may also corne from a fertile worker, occasion ally seen, or from an unimpregnated queen, but usually from an impregnated queen which has vol untarily prevented fertilization necessary to pro duce s, worker. The drone is fed six and a half days as a larva, before the cell is capped. The caps being quite convex so as to be easily distinguish ed from the worker brood. After mating, the drone organs adhere to the queen, the act of cop ulation always proving fatal to the drone. In relation to the neuter or worker-bees, says Prof. Cook, in this connection, they were called the bees by Aristotle, and Wildman and Bevan say they are by far the most numerous individuals of the hive—there being from 1,500 to 4,000 in every good colony-. It is possible for a colony to be even much more populous than this. These are also the smallest bees of the colony, as they measure but little more than one-half of an inch in length. The workers—as taught by Schirach, and proved by Mlle. Jurine, of Geneva, Switzerland, who, at the request of Huber, sought for and found, by aid of her microscope, that abortive ovaries are undeveloped females. Rarely, and probably- very rarely, except that a colony is long or often queenless, as is frequently true of our nuclei, these bees are so far developed as to produce eggs, which, of course, would always be drone eggs. Such workers—known as fertile—were first noticed by Reim, while Huber actually S1LW one in the act of egg-laying. Except in the power to produce eggs, they seem not unlike the other workers. Huber supposed that these were reared in cells contiguous to royal cells, and thus received royal food by accident. The fact, as stated by Mr. Quinby, that these occur in colonies where queen-larv were never reared, is fatal to the above theory. Langstroth and Berlepsch thought that these bees, while larvw, were fed, though too spar ingly, with the royal aliment, by bees in need of a queen, and hence the accelerated development. The workers, as might be surmised by the im portance and variety of their functions, are structurally very peculiar. Their tongues, labial palpi, and are very much elongated, while the former is very hairy, and doubles under, the throat when not in use. The length of the ligula enables them to reach into flowers with long tubes, and by the aid of the hairs they lap up the nectar. When the tong-ue is big with its adhering load of sweet, it is doubled back, enclosed by the labial palpi and and then extended, thus losing its nectar, which at the same time is sucked into the large honey stomach. The bees, at will, can force the honey back from the honey-stomach, when it is stored in the honey-cells or given to the other bees. The jaws are very strong, without the rudiment ary tooth,while the cutting edge is semi-conical, so that when the jaws are closed they form an imperfect cone. Thus these are well formed to cut comb, knead wax, and perform their various functions. Their eyes are like those of the queen,while their wings, like those of the drones, attain the end of the body. These organs as in all insects with rapid flight, are slim and strong, and, by their more or less rapid vibrations, give the variety of tone which characterizes their hum. Thus we have the rapid movements and high pitch of anger, and the slow motion and mellow note of content and joy. On the outside of the posterior tibia -and basal tarsus is a cavity, made more deep by its rim of hairs, known as the pollen basket. In these pollen baskets is compacted the pollen, which is gath ered by the mouth organs, and carried back to the four anterior legs. Opposite the pollen bas kets are regular rows of golden hairs which probably aid in storing and compacting the pollen balls. On the anterior legs of the workers, between the fimur and tibia, is a curious notch, covered by a spur. Some have supposed that it aided bees in reaching deeper down into tubular flowers, others that it was used in scraping off the pollen, and still others have thought that it was to enable bees to hold on when clustering. The first two functions may belong to this, though other honey and pollen-gathering bees do not possess it. The latter function is performed by the claws at the end of the tarsi. The work ers, too, possess an organ of defense which they are quick to use if occasion requires. This is not curved as in the queen, but straight. The gland which secretes the poison is double, and the sack in vvhich it is stored, is as large as a flaxseed. The sting proper, is a triple organ consisting of three sharp spears, very smooth and of exquisite polish. The inost highly wrought steel instruments, under a high mag nifier, look rough and unfinished, while the parts of the sting show no such inequalities. One of these spears is canaliculate—that is, it forms an imperfect tube—and in this canal work the other two, which fill the vacant space, and thus the three make a complete tube, which con nects with the poison sack and pass the poison. The slender spears which work in the tube, are marvelously sharp, and project beyond it when nsed, and are worked alternately by small but powerful muscles, so they may pass through buckskin, or even through the thick scarfskin of the band. These are also barbed at the end with teeth, seven of which are prominent, which extend out and back like the barb of a fish-hook. Hence, they cannot be withdrawn, if it pene trates any firm substance, and so when used, it is drawn from the bee, and carries with it a por tion of the alimentary canal, thus costing the poor bee its life. The workers hatch from an impregnated egg, which can only come from a queen that has met a drone, and is always laid in the small, horizontal cell. These eggs are in no wise different, so far as we can see, from those which are laid in the drone or queen cells. All are cylindrical and slightly curved, and are fastened by one end to the bottom of the cell, and a little to one side of the centre. As already shown, these are voluntarily fertilized by the queen, as she extrudes them, preparatory to fastening them in the cells. These eggs, though so small—one-sixteenth of an inch long—may be easily seen by holding the comb so that the light will shine into the cells. With experience, they are detected almost at once, but I have often found it quite difficult to make the novice see them, though very plainly visible to my experi enced eye. The egg hatches in three days. The larva, incorrectly called grub, maggot—and even caterpillar, by Hunter—is white, footless, and lies coiled up in the cell till near maturity. In six days the cell is capped over by the worker bees. This cap is composed of pollen and wax so it is darker, more porous, and more easily broken than the caps of the honey-cells; it is also more convex. The larva, now full grown, hav having lapped up all the food placed before it, surrounds itself with a silken cocoon, so exces sively thin that it requires a great number to ap preciably reduce the size of the cells. These al ways remain in the cell after the bees escape, and give to old comb its dark color and great strength. Yet they are so thin, that cells used even for a dozen years, seem to serve as well for brood as when first used. In three days the insects assume the pupa state and in twenty-one -days the bee emerges from the cell. The worker bees never attain a great age. Those reared in autumn may live for eight or nine months, and if in queenless stocks, where little labor is per formed, wven longer; while those reared in spring will wear out in three, and when most busy, will often die in from thirty to forty-five day-s. None of these bees survive the year through, so there is a limit to the number which may exist in a colony. The function of the worker-bees is to do all the manual labor of the hives. They secrete the wax, Avhich forms in small pellets under the over-lapping rings, un der the abdomen. I have found these wax-scales on both old and younot. ccording to Fritz Muller, the admirable German observer, so long a traveler in South America, the bees of the genus melipona secrete the wax on the back. The young bees build the comb, ventilate the hive, feed the larm, and cap the cells. The older bees—for, as readily seen in Italianizing, the young bees do not go forth for the first one or two weeks—gather the honey, collect the pollen, or bee-bread, as it is generally- called; bring in the propolis or bee-glue, which is used to close openings, and as a cernent, supply- the hive with water (Y); defend the hive from all improper in trusions; destroy drones when their day of grace is past; kill and arrange for replacing worth less queens; destroy inchoate queens, drones, or even workers, if circumstances demand it, and lead forth a portion of the bees when the conditions itnpel them to swarm. When there are no young bees, the old bees will act as house-keepers and nurses, which they otherwise refuse to do. The young bees, on the other hand, will not go forth and glean, dven though there he no old bees to do this necessary part of bee-duties. An indirect function of all the bees in the hive is to supply animal heat, as the very life of the bees require that the temperature inside the hive he maintained at a rate considerably above freezing. In the chemical process at tendant upon nutrition, much heat is generated, which, as first shown by Newport, may be con siderably augmented at the pleasure of the bees, by forced respiration. The bees, too, by a rapid vibration of their wings, have a power to venti late their hives, and thus reduce the temperature, when the weather is hot. Thus they moderate the heat of summer, and temper the cold of ;winter.