Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/764

BEE. The social bees (buml)lebees and honey-bees) are readily distinguished from other and plainly inferior members of the tribe by several striking peculiarities, succinctly stated by L. O. Howard as follows: "Each species is composed of three classes of individuals — males, females, and 'neuters' or workers. They live gregariously in larger or smaller communities. They have the power of secreting wax, from which their cells are made, and the larvae are fed from time to time bj' the workers. The outer side of the di- lated posterior tibiie is smooth, and in the workers is hollowed into a shining plate for carrying pollen, which is collected by means of the pollen-brushes on the basal joint of the hind tarsi. The maxillary palpi are very small. As a general thing the body is covered with hair."

The lowest place in this category is occupied by the bumblebees (Bombida;), or 'bumblebees,' as they are more fi'equently termed in Great Britain. These are fully described elsewhere ( See Bumblebee ) ; and here it need only be said that their colonies, inhabiting nests under- ground, are not permanent. All the members perish on the approach of winter except the im- pregnated females ("queens'). These hide away singly, and eacli one founds a new colony early in the succeeding spring. Consequently, the colo- nies are small, rarely exceeding 200 individuals, in American species, at least; and no greater stores of honey are accumulated than suffice for the season's needs.

S'ocJai Bees. — A distinct step in development, from every point of view, is the family Apidie, or honey-bees ; for these form permanent colonies, lasting through the winter by means of stored food, the amount of which is proportionate to and adequate for the needs of the colony, al- though that may and usually does number many thousands of lives; dispose of their unwieldy surplus of population by migration; and con- duct a community life of extraordinary activity and usefulness bj' a systematic economy and a body of instincts, modified by intelligent judg- ment, which cannot be matched elsewhere in the animal kingdom. This activity and productive power has long been turned to the use of man in the care of a few species which have been do- mesticated since prehistoric times. The different species of honey-bee in a wild state generally )nake their nests in hollow trees, or among the branches of trees, sometimes under ledges or in clefts of rocks ; and their stores of honey are not only sought after by man, but afford" food to numerous animals, some of which equally de- light to prey upon their larvae. Several species have been made, in a limited degree, to subseiwe man's needs in a more regular way. The com- mon bee of Southern Asia {Apis Indica) is kept in limited numbers, according to Benton, in earthen jars and sections of trees, simulaling it.i natural home, in parts of the East Indies. Its cells are smaller than those of our hive-bee, ancl under the rude methods employed only ten or twelve pounds of honey is obtained. Another small East Indian bee [Apis florca) builds a comb about the size of one's hand, in the open air, attached to a tAvig of a bush, and does not seem capable of domestication. .4/)?.5 ilor.tatii of the Far East, on the other hand, is of gigantic size, and Benton first learned its peculiarities. They build immense oval combs, often 5 or feet long and 3 or 4 feet wide, which they at- tach to overhanging ledges of rocks or large limbs of lofty trees in the primitive forests of southeastern Asia and the neighboring islands, including the Philippines. Benton found that when these combs were placed in frame hives the bees did not desert them, and were easily- handled; the quantity of was and honey was always very large, and there seems no reason why this kind of bee should not be brought under cultivation in civilized regions. Several other species of possible importance in the future exist in other parts of the tropics, as Apis Adansoni of West Africa, Apis vnicolor of Mada- gascar and Mauritius, and the closely related Btingless bees of the South American genus Meli- pona. Consult Bingham, Faana of British In- dia: Bees and Wasps (London, 1807).

Fossil Bees. — The earliest forms of bees, as far as deflnitelj' known, lived in Tertiary times. A few specimens belonging to the order Hyme- noptera liave been found in Mesozoic strata, but it cannot be .said with certainty that they in- clude representatives of the group Apoidea. In the Tertiary period, this group was probably fair- ly abundant, as a large number of fossil specie.5 have been described from Tertiary strata in Europe and America. The best-known European localities are Oensigen (Switzerland), Eadoboj (Croatia), and Roth and Krottensee (Germany), where 7 species of Bonibus, 5 of Anthophorites, 1 of Anthophora, 2 of A])is, and 2 of Osmia have been found. In America the Tertiary lake- beds of Florissant, Colo., have yielded a num- ber of species of Apoidea bees, but the speci- mens generally are not sifficiently well pre- served to jiermit of exact determination. The family Andrenida; is repre.sented in fossil form by a few specimens from North Germany ajid from Florissant.

The Common Honey- Bee (Apis nielli fern). This is suppo.sed 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 numlier from 10.000 to 00,000 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- isliing community, are females whose generative organs are so undeveloped that they rarely produce eggs. They are therefore popularly but 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 abdomen. The antennse are twelve-jointed and terminate in a knob. The abdomen consists of sis