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of the remarkable peculiarities of bees, which is also shared by other social insects, as ants, wasps and termites, is that there are three distinct kinds of individuals in the community. For, in addition to the males and females, which are the reproducing members of the colony, there is a third class which performs the labours of the community. The females, of which there is usually only one in a colony, are known as queens; the males as drones; and the labourers as workers. (Plate V.)

The bee-queen is the acme of a long line of communistic development. It is little wonder that those men of ancient times who observed her, and the attitude of the other bees toward her, regarded her as regal and called her queen. But she is a much more important element in the perfect commune than a mere sovereign, since she is the actual mother of her subjects.

Too much care cannot be shown in the selection of the queen, or mother of the bee-colony. Her blood is their blood; her faults are their faults; her