In attending upon the young the labour of the workers appears to be divided : a certain number always remain brooding over the cells and feeding them, while others are employed in collecting honey. It is these last that are the principal secreters of wax, and are called Wax-Workers : the former are called Nurse-Bees.
The Quern-Bee is of a dark-brown colour : the head is thickly fur nished with yellow hairs, except on the forehead, where the hair is nearly black ; on the vertex there are three small convex simple eyes, or stemmata. The antennas are yellow beneath and brown above, and composed of twelve joints, the basil joint is more than one-third of the whole length, the remaining joints are bent forwards, and at an angle with the first. The thorax is covered with pale-brown hairs. The abdomen is the shape of an elongated cone, and nearly smooth, exhibiting six distinct segments above : the under side of the body and the base of each segment above are of a paler colour than the remaining parts. The legs are of a brownish yellow : the femora and tibia of the anterior legs and the base of the femora of the posterior legs are brown. All the claws of the tarsi are divided, the inner divi sion being much shorter than the outer one. The wings are short and small in proportion, scarcely reaching more than half the length of the abdomen.
This sex is furnished with a bent sting; in the neuter the sting is straight ; the male has no sting. The Queen-Bee resembles the worker in the shape of the head and thorax ; but the great length of the abdomen and the paler colour of the legs and (internee are its chief distinguishing There is but one queen in a hive, who is treated with the greatest attention by all the other bees. It might be wondered how they can distinguish the queen from any other bee, the interior of the hive being quite dark : in this the antennas are their sole guide, for if the workers be prevented touching her occa Honey is collected by means of the proboscis. To a common bacrvcr this instrument appears to be a single tube, through which it IA thought the honey is conveyed to the stomach by suction ; but it sionally with the antenna they proceed as if she were lost. This has been satisfactorily proved by some ingenious experiments by Huber. If by accident the Queen be killed, or if she die, her dead body is still treated with attention, and for a time even preferred to any other queen.
The Queen being accidentally or intentionally removed from a hive, her absence is soon discovered and great disorder follows ; but this is only temporary, for in a few hours preparation is made to replace her loss. The larva of neuters from two to three days old are selected for this purpose : the cells containing them are each enlarged by sacrificing three adjoining cells, and in this space the workers build a cylindrical tube which surrounds the young larva, which are theu supplied with the same food as that given to the ordinary royal larva, and which is more pungent than that given to common larva. In about three days' time a perpendicular tube is constructed and joined to the mouth of the cell just described ; into this the larva gradually makes its way, moving in a spiral direction. It then remains two days in a perpendicular position, the head being downwards, after which it turns to the pupa and then to a queen. As several hatch nearly at the same time the strongest stings the others to death, and becomes ruler of the hive. From this it is evident that the worker bees are imperfect females, requiring only a slight difference of treat ment in the larva state to become queens or fertile females.
If the Queen be removed from a hive, and a stranger be immediately introduced, she is surrounded and kept prisoner until she dies of hunger ' • for the workers never sting a Queen. lf, however, 18 hours have elapsed since the loss of the former queen, the stranger is better received, for although she is at first surrounded, she is ultimately set at liberty, and treated with all the usual attention ; but if 24 hours have clasped before the strange queen be introduced, she is at once admitted to the sovereignty of the hive.
While the Queen remains in a hive, the introduction of a strange queen will occasion a disturbance, somewhat similar to that which takes place when two or three young queens escape from their cells at the same time : both the stranger and the reigning queen are sur rounded by the workers, and the escape of either being thus prevented, they are soon brought into contact. A battle ensues, which ends in the death of one of them, and the other then becomes ruler of the hive.