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The Honey-Bee: Hymenoptera

Insects, according to certain peculiarities in structure, have been divided into several Orders, one of which contains butterflies, another beetles, another flies, etc.; the Order to which the bees belong being the Hymenoptera, or membrane-winged insects, though they do not alone deserve the name, as members of other orders have also membranous wings.

The Hymenoptera form a large Order, tens of thousands of species having been described and named, and these are a comparatively small part of those still unknown.

The members of the Hymenoptera are characterized by having four membranous wings, furnished with comparatively few or no transverse veins. The hind wings are smaller than the fore wings. The mouth parts are formed for biting and sucking. The abdomen in the females is usually furnished with a sting, piercer, or saw. The metamorphosis is complete.

The Hymenoptera may be divided into two parts, - those with instruments for boring, and those with stings.

The saw-flies, gall-flies, and a host of insects that lay their eggs in the bodies or eggs of other insects belong to the boring Hymenoptera, while to those bearing stings, known as the Aculeata, belong our well-known bees, ants, and wasps. These do not employ their piercing instruments for boring, but for quite another purpose. They are stinging insects, having a poison-bag connected with the sting. The poison was probably used originally in obtaining food for the young, as it still is among the wasps. Wasps do not kill the insects they sting, but paralyze them and keep them alive and fresh as food for their larvæ. This was probably the office of the bee's sting originally; but if this was so, time has so modified the insect that the sting is now no longer used to provision the nest, but has been turned to account in defending it.

Some bees have no stings at all, but such as have use them in defence only.

The family of bees is a large one, and is naturally divided into two parts, - the short-tongued bees and the longtongued ones, or the Apide. Among the Apidæ, or honeygathering bees, there are a number of genera, chief among which is the genus Apis, to which our honey-bee belongs. Structure, Habits, and Products So we see the honey-bees of this country have a great many near relatives; indeed, counting the short-tongued bees that do not lay up honey but feed their young on balls of pollen or pollen and honey mixed together, there are thousands of species.

Even among the honey-making bees there are several genera and many species scattered over the world. The bumble-bee alone, which has a long tongue, though it does not always store up honey, has over fifty species in this country.

But our chief concern is with those bees that have been induced to lay up stores of honey in hives by which man has profited, and which in all but tropical countries belong to the genus Apis, of which again there is a number of species.

The Hymenoptera as an Order stand high in the scale of life, and of them the bees take first rank, - the hive-bee being by some placed next to man in point of intelligence. Certainly they stand at the very top of the insect scale. The innumerable "bees" flying about the flowers in summer are not all hive-bees. Many of them are the wild short-tongued bees searching for pollen, and these are soon recognized by their small size and slender forms. The bumble-bees, on the other hand, which belong to the genus Bombus, are larger than the hive-bees, though some of the smaller workers occasionally approximate the hivebee in size, but bees of this genus can always be recognized by their black and yellow hairy coats. Bumble-bees are covered with hairs that form a thick short fur of alternating black and yellow stripes or areas over their whole bodies excepting sometimes a round bald spot on top of the thorax. Hive-bees have few or no hairs on the upper rings of the abdomen, and present a very different appearance from their furry relatives. The Honey-Makers Many people do not know the hive-bees from the small worker bumble-bees; but the furry coat of the latter will always identify them.

With this slight introduction we will proceed to a more careful consideration of the organs and activities of our subject.