THE COMMON HONEY-BEE ( Apis mellifera). This is supposed to be of Asiatic origin, and was domesticated about the eastern end of the Medi terranean at the dawn of history. the bee-keepers of Egypt. Syria. and Greece practicing many of the arts used with bees at present, such as moving them to new pastures from time to time, etc. It traveled into Europe with the Roman civilization, if not before, and came to America with the early colonists. Several races have been developed in the course of this long history of semi-domestication, and the best of them long ago reached the United States. Its communities seem ordinarily to number from 10.000 to 60,000 individuals. These communities are made up of three classes of bees. A single one is a fully developed female, capable, after a single fertili zation, of almost unlimited production of eggs; she is the mother of the band, and is usually termed the 'queen' Another consists of male bees, or 'drones,' which at certain seasons num ber from 600 to 2000. The third and most common class, counted by thousands in a flour- j ishing community, are females whose generative organs are so undeveloped that they rarely produce eggs. They are therefore popularly hut erroneously called 'neuters'; but are better known as 'workers,' since they perform all the labors of the hive.
The workers have a body about half an inch in length and about one-sixth of an inch in greatest breadth, at the upper part of the abdo men. The antennae are twel•e-jointed and ter- ' initiate in a knob. The abdomen consists of six joints or rings, and under the scaly coverings of the four middle ones are situated the 'wax pockets, or organs for the secretion of wax. The extremity of the abdomen is provided with a sting which is straight. The basal joint of the hind tarsi is dilated to form a pollen-basket, and the legs are well provided with hairs for collect ing the pollen and brushing it into this recep tacle.
The males, or drones, so called from the peculiar noise which they make in their flight, are much larger than the workers, and thicker in proportion. The antenna' have an additional
joint. The eyes are remarkably large, and meet upon the crown.
The perfect females, or queen-mothers, are con siderably longer than either the workers or the males; they are also distinguished by the yel low tint of the under part of the body, and differ from all the other inmates of the hive in the shortness of their wings, which, instead of reach ing to the extremity of the abdomen, leave some of its rings uncovered. Neither males nor queens have wax-pockets, nor have they pollen-baskets. Their legs also are less hairy. The sting of the queen bee is curved. The mandibles both of the males and perfect females are notched or toothed beneath the tip, while those of the workers are not. There are two rival theories for explain ing the origin of the different kinds of bees in a colony. Dzierzon maintains that fertilized queens can lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs at will, the former in queen-cells and worker-cells, the latter in drone-cells. Dickel contends, on the contrary, that by a tariation in the food the workers can produce at will queens, drones, or workers out of indifferent eggs or larva:.
The greater part of the life of the queen or mother bee is spent in laying eggs for the in crease of the population of the hive; and this increase gees on at a rapid rate, as the queen not unfrequently lays 3000 eggs in a (lay. The number, however, varies greatly. In cold weath er it is very small, but the invariable presence of brood in different stages, in a well-stocked hive, proves that some eggs are laid even in winter. During the later spring months the number is very great ; many practical apiarians considering that as many as 3000, or even 4000, are deposited daily. The community, however, is not destined to an indefinite increase; but ill certain circumstances, s•arming takes place, and new colonies are founded.